Birmingham vice-chairman Peter Pannu has rubbished reports of a rift with manager Alex McLeish.
Pannu was quoted in a national newspaper as saying McLeish had been demanding too much money during contract negotiations and that the Scot was “no Jose Mourinho”.
But Pannu told the Birmingham Mail: “This is all nonsense. We are just perhaps inches away from Alex signing a contract, possibly by next week.
“Our relationship is phenomenal, we are very strong and close, and I want to dispel this notion that there is anything wrong.”
And he want to reveal the pair had laughed off his reference to Real Madrid coach Mourinho.
“I spoke to Alex about the Mourinho reference and we laughed about it,” he continued.
“In the whole context of the interview I did, it would not have had a sting to it. But to take out the extract like that made it look worse than it was.
“Mourinho came up because I mentioned that the agent who made the initial approach to me about Alex and his contract represents Mourinho.
“Nothing was meant as a slight to Alex in the context of the conversation I had.”