And the former Rangers boss is "satisfied" with the assurances given him about the club's future by chairman David Gold and co-owner David Sullivan as the chances of a takeover by Carson Yeung appear to be fading fast.

McLeish has signed a three-and-a-half-year contract and is only the fourth manager appointed by Gold and Sullivan during their 15-year reign.

The 48-year-old will meet the players for the first time on Thursday and then start work in earnest in preparing for Sunday's Barclays Premier League clash with Tottenham at White Hart Lane.

McLeish came close to becoming a national hero with Scotland, who fell agonisingly short of qualifying for the Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland.

But the day to day involvement with players in domestic football and the challenge presented by Blues was difficult for McLeish to resist.

He said: "It is with regret that I leave such a good job, such good people.

"We had a great rapport within the Scottish FA. But the lure of the day to day stuff and working in the Premier League was hard to turn down.

"The end of the Euro campaign and realising it was nine months before Scotland played another competitive game played on my mind a little bit.

"Would I have stayed if Scotland had qualified? I couldn't answer that one. I never really mapped out my future and planned what I was going to do. It has all evolved like this rather than being totally planned."

McLeish, who enjoyed spells in charge of Motherwell, Hibernian and Rangers before taking the Scotland job, added: "Birmingham is a real football club in every sense of the word, with passionate fans. It is a great challenge for me.

"Staying up is the priority. We have to make sure we stay in the Premier League. That is the challenge, first and foremost, and then we will look at other things.

"I've never attempted to set too high a target at the beginning of every job. Let's get the next game won, let's get some points on the board and then we take it from there and try and build things slowly.

"We've got a good chance of staying up. We believe we've got the skills to keep the guys up but we need the players to have the skills as well and we will be pushing them to give the very best they can.

"People say why not wait for what they call a 'bigger' club but sometimes the opportunity is not there and you can wait forever for a chance. That is as good a reason as any.

"There is a lot of talk of takeovers but I was satisfied with what was said. I am satisfied with what I heard from the chairman and David Sullivan. In terms of money to spend in January, I know the parameters and I am comfortable with that."

McLeish, who spoke with Sir Alex Ferguson and Walter Smith amongst other managers before taking the job, is confident Scotland have the platform to go forward.

He said: "There are many young Scottish coaches in Scotland - and in other countries - who can certainly take Scotland forward.

"We've left a lot of good players there after inheriting a good squad from Walter Smith. We've added a few ourselves and the national team can definitely go forward.

"I didn't know it was going to be my goodbye after the Italy game because I then went to Durban for the World Cup draw and was very enthusiastic about the draw itself.

"It was wonderful to be amongst all the top nations and coaches in the world. Birmingham was something that came right out of the blue."