Rangers' financial problems have been well documented in recent months - that they have not payed a transfer fee for over a year tells you everything you need to know about their current predicament.

Their lack of cash has been put down as the reason why the club are struggling to compete in the Champions League and fail to shine in the SPL - of course this is partially true, although poor signings, awful tactics and a reluctance to blood youngsters also contributes.

Former Gers boss Alex McLeish has no such problems as Birmingham. He will have untold millions to spend in the January transfer window following the club's takeover, but after years of operating with limited financies at various sides, it seems the cash windfall has gone to Big Eck's head.

How else can you explain him talking up Birmingham's interest in signing Edin Dzeko and Grafite from Wolfsburg, two of the hottest properties in European football?

Ok, maybe it was a one-off, McLeish is not normally one for attention-grabbing comments to create headlines.

But to follow it up by claiming he left his role as Rangers manager in 2006 due to a lack of cash surely suggests he has lost the plot?

Has he really forgotten he led the club to their longest ever winless run (10 games) in the middle of an overall run of form of two wins in 16 games just months before he left?

Does he remember the club finished third in a two-horse race in his final season in charge?

And what about a run of seven Old Firm defeats in a row between 2003 and 2004, during which time his side only managed to score twice? Surely he must remember that?

Those were the reasons McLeish left Rangers to be succeeded by Paul Le Guen.

If anything, he was lucky to last as long as he did at Ibrox, qualification to the last 16 of the Champions League meaning he was not axed in December 2005 following a "crunch meeting" in which chairman David Murray "had to look him in the eyes" before deciding to give McLeish another six months in the job following qualification to the last 16 of the Champions League.

Eck's time at Ibrox split Gers fans at the time and still does.

There are those who would point to the above as signs of his ineptitude while others would argue he won more trophies than Martin O'Neill did with the best Celtic side since the Lisbon Lions conquered Europe.

But there won't be many around who would disagree that his time was up after five years at the helm and it's sad to see him attempt to rewrite history with his comments.

He claims he told Murray: "Something has to happen, either you give me funds and I continue or I go and the players get a new face."

Of course, he may well have done so. But it smacks of a man trying to prove it was his decision to leave rather than Murray's or the fans.

McLeish may not have had the cash of his predecessor Dick Advocaat and undoubtedly suffered at a time of downsizing at Ibrox, but the majority of his success came in the beginning when the squad was largely not his.

When he began to splash the cash and build his own side, that's when things began to go downhill for Rangers and Eck. Hibs and Motherwell fans would probably say the same of his spell in charge of their clubs.

McLeish has gone on to better things since Rangers. Taking Scotland to the verge of World Cup qualification before getting his dream job in the English Premier League.

Comments like those do nobody any favours. And Rangers fans will be looking intently to see what McLeish does with his new found millions in January.

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