A manager who led Scotland to victory in France – and, as a player, Aberdeen to triumph in Europe – has earned the right to tell his new charges to leave fear at the door and ask courage to come right on in. Alex McLeish takes charge of a Barclays Premier League team for the first time tomorrow and, while accepting that he has entered a relegation battle, he will tell his Birmingham City players to look up, not down.

Positive thinking is a prerequisite for all successful managers, but especially for one taking charge at St Andrew’s. After all the confusion of a prospective takeover that has cost the club momentum, a manager and may never even happen, Birmingham take on Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane tomorrow with McLeish asking a team who have lost six of their past seven matches to embrace the challenge.

December’s fixture list can make or break Birmingham’s season because they face the six teams around them in the table. “I am looking forward to it,” McLeish said. “I don’t fear failure and we have got to get the players thinking along those lines. We are going to Tottenham Hotspur: don’t be daunted, but actually look forward to going to places like White Hart Lane, with its great tradition.”

Birmingham have become synonymous with a style of play – hard-working, high-tempo, direct when appropriate – not dissimilar to that which served Scotland so well as they came within a victory of qualifying for Euro 2008, but McLeish hinted that he will address the balance of the team, indicating that ball retention in central midfield will be given a higher priority.

“It depends on the personnel and how we approach the game,” he said. “It is difficult to have a philosophy in football when you don’t have the millions to bring the top-class players in the world to play a beautiful passing game. I would like us to have that. I have always encouraged my players to pass it. If these guys here have got into the Premiership, they must have good ability and they must be able to take the ball and pass the ball. Then again, sometimes you have got to find row Z. There are philosophies and there are philosophies.”

McLeish, who Terry Venables tried to sign for Tottenham from Aberdeen in the late 1980s, will give his squad every opportunity to prove themselves before the transfer window opens, but he urged them to eschew panic. “Rather than seeing it as something to fear, the players should see it as a great challenge,” he said. “There is not much between the bottom seven.”

Tottenham have not lost in the six matches since they appointed Juande Ramos as head coach and McLeish is impressed by the Spaniard’s approach. “I admired what he had done at Seville,” McLeish said. “He created a fantastic, free-flowing football team and I have seen his games in the last couple of weeks when he has thrown caution to the wind when Spurs were struggling. It paid off for him and that shows he’s not afraid to go for it.”