Marc Leonard captained Birmingham City during their cup exit to Port Vale in midweek
Marc Leonard of Birmingham City
Marc Leonard has suggested his future lies at Birmingham City after being handed the captain’s armband for Tuesday’s Carabao Cup exit to Port Vale.
Scottish midfielder Leonard led a much-changed XI that bowed out of the cup in the second round thanks to Jaheim Headley’s first half header.
Blues suffered only their third home defeat under Chris Davies and failed to reach the third round of the Carabao Cup – a competition the club won in 2011 – for the 11th successive season.
Leonard reflected: “For the first 30 minutes I think we were in total control of the game and it felt good, however in the last 10-15 minutes (of the first half) they started to get a few set pieces, they were loading the box and applied some pressure.
“They scored just before half-time, which is obviously disappointing. I think we could have caused them a lot more issues but that’s football. We’re very disappointed.
“The boys that came in did well. It’s tough getting to learn the system. It wasn’t through a lack of effort.
“The changes are going to happen, we know that. Nobody is more disappointed than us who have came in and tried to grab this opportunity.”
Leonard, 23, is still behind midfield dynamos Tomoki Iwata and Paik Seung-ho in Davies’ thinking and hasn’t been short of interest in this summer’s transfer window.
The window doesn’t close until 7pm on Monday but, as things stand, Leonard intends to stay and fight for his place at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park.
He said: “Right now I’m a Birmingham player, I’m here and I’ve captained the team. Look, I want to be here. It’s a massive club.
“As the window has progressed I’ve had good conversations with the manager here. We’ve got seven days to go but I’m happy where I am.”
On captaining Blues for the first time, Leonard added: “It was a huge privilege. The manager told me and it was a huge honour. It’s such a massive club, so to do that is such a massive privilege.”
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