Alex McLeish has paid tribute to the Blues board for financing a hectic week of transfer activity at St. Andrew's, capped by the £5 million purchase of Roger Johnson from Cardiff City.

Blues splashed out a club record fee for a defender to prize Johnson away from the Bluebirds.

And with Ecuador international Giovanny Espinoza also arriving through the doors for a sizeable six-figure sum, plus the loan signing of England U21 keeper Joe Hart, McLeish is delighted with the way his backline is shaping up.

McLeish, a former centre half himself, has been tracking 26-year-old Johnson for some time and he is excited at the prospect of working with the ex-Wycombe man to help him to become an even better player.

"The club have shown their ambition," began the Blues boss, as he sat down to talk exclusively with www.bcfc.com this afternoon after returning from a well-earned break.

"Roger is a guy who doesn't have Premier League experience but he has certainly been a stalwart for Cardiff City over the past couple of years.

"He is still young and the kind of age for a centre back that I like to work with. This is a great challenge for Roger to prove himself in the Premier League, a fantastic opportunity for him.

"My main aim in the centre back search was to look for guys who know the British game and Roger knows it well.

"He may not have played in the Premier League before but he has played against a lot of Premier League clubs and acquitted himself really well.

"He played against Arsenal in the FA Cup this year and the season before he scored in the win away at Middlesbrough.

"He has always been a player that we liked but we thought that maybe the transfer fee would be a bit too rich, particularly when we're trying to bolster other parts of the team.

"But the Board have gone that extra mile to bring him in."

Fellow new boy Espinoza will be more of an unknown quantity to Blues fans but McLeish is confident that the defender can adapt to the Premier League.

He continued: "Espinoza has a lot of experience and the club felt that it was a deal that we could do within budgets.

"He has over 80 international caps and I know him well from watching games in the Copa America and the World Cup."

After getting through last season with only three senior recognised centre backs, McLeish will have a relative embarrassment of riches in that department next term with another highly-rated summer signing, Scott Dann, also at his disposal.

The Blues chief commented: "It is up to all the centre backs to fight it out. We already have big Tiny (Martin Taylor) here and Franck Queudrue did very well at centre back last season.

"The other players should be pleased that we're trying to make the club and the squad even stronger.

"Radhi (Jaidi) has gone and Liam Ridgewell is going to be out for a while so it was important that we bolstered that position.

"It is vital that we get the spine of the team right and we don't leak goals."