Alex McLeish has assured Birmingham supporters that Fabrice Muamba will be staying at the club, despite interest from Stoke, Wigan and Bolton.The Potters, Latics and Trotters have all been linked with the midfielder following Birmingham's relegation to the Championship.

McLeish has not been surprised by the speculation, but one of his top priorities this summer is to keep Muamba as he looks to build a squad capable of bouncing back to the Premier League at the first attempt.

"His athleticism in the big games, he was absolutely magnificent in breaking things up," McLeish told the Birmingham Mail.

"Against the Man Uniteds, Arsenals he did exceptionally well and that's probably why there has been a little bit of tentative interest in him from other clubs.

"When you play well against the top teams, people notice.

"Fabrice can be justifiably happy with his first season in the Premier League. Obviously, as a team things didn't go according to plan because in the end we lost out by a point and were relegated.

"So now we've got to react and make sure we're a force in the Championship and Fabrice comes into that category, along with the others in that we want him to help us have a crack at it and come back at the first time of asking."

There have been rumours of a contract wrangle, with Muamba due an upgrade after he passed a certain number of games in the Premier League.

That was an agreement when he signed permanently from Arsenal but Blues did not resolve the issue last season.

McLeish is nevertheless confident the matter has now been sorted out and feels Muamba is more settled at St Andrews.

"Fabrice is contracted until 2010 and I think he's very happy with things," said McLeish.

"I'm sure he would have liked negotiations put to bed quickly, but nothing has dimmed his enthusiasm.

"All season long he showed great energy and attitude.

"He played the way he trained, he gave wholehearted commitment, the application was tremendous and it was great to see him get a couple of Premier League goals too."

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