The Blues boss has contradicted what managing director Karren Brady had said in her column in the Sun newspaper where she claimed that Bolton chairman Phil Gartside had offered Blues the chance to loan the 28-year-old Nigerian defender and would give them first option on buying the player should the loan prove a success. "(Bolton boss) Gary Megson said he wasn't available.
"He (Shittu) wasn't offered to us on loan," McLeish has told the Birmingham Mail.
"I think the MD was tongue-in-cheek. Certainly Gary ruled it out. I spoke to him personally. But I know the board said if he was available, they would do it."