Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish has declared the Blues should not be scared of splashing out £10million on a player if they want to become a Premier League force.

McLeish has made no secret of his desire to bolster his squad at St Andrews in the New Year having been handed a reported £40million transfer war chest to spend on quality additions by new owner Carson Yeung.

Blues' current record transfer to date was the £6.25million spent on luring Emile Heskey from Liverpool in 2004, however, McLeish has revealed the club could surpass that mark come the January transfer window.

"If I was to say to Carson that I would like £10 million to spend on a top, top striker then we’ve got to convince everybody that he is absolutely the right man," McLeish told the Birmingham Mail.

The former Rangers boss has called for the relegation candidates to take a look at fellow Premier League clubs who are gradually showing signs of improvement domestically.

"Stoke are doing it and we have to look at teams like Stoke as an example. Wigan are doing it. There are huge disparities between some of these clubs and ours."

The 50-year-old will seek to bring quality to the club rather than quantity but he admits he may need four big signings to secure the clubs future in the top flight.

"If we’ve got Premier League ambitions we need to bring in the quality. How many players? I think three or four. Midfield, I still think we’re a bit thin in the wide areas, and up front."

McLeish was a notable spectator during Republic of Ireland's World Cup qualifying play-off against France at Croke Park on Saturday evening, with Celtic winger Aiden McGeady and Toulouse frontman Andre-Pierre Gignac believed to be targets.

"We’ve watched two or three players but we haven’t made our mind up about the one, the two or the three on any respective list of strikers or midfielders or players out wide," McLeish admitted.

"There’s still a bit of work to be done. We’d like to be in a position maybe at the end of this month, or just going into December, with some hard and fast names that we’ve nailed and we think we can go forward with."