TOP scorer Scott McGleish says if he didn't have another year left on his Adams Park contract he would be looking for an escape route now.

And he has advised the players who are out of contract at the moment to start talking to other clubs.

He says the club is in chaos with non football men deciding which players are retained, no manager in place and only one pre-season friendly at Flackwell Heath arranged.

He said: "If I was a player out of contract, if anybody wants to talk to you you've got to talk to them. The club might not like me saying that and I'll probably get reprimanded for it but to be fair I'm not worried.

"If my contract was up this year I would be talking to people already.

"I would have been on the phone to other people within an hour.

"You don't know if the new manager coming in wants you, or what the club are going to do.

"You have got to look after yourself. People have got families and mortgages to pay."

McGleish (pictured right) stepped down a division to sign for Paul Lambert's Blues in a £75,000 deal from Northampton a season and a half ago.

And he is furious that the board did not persuade Lambo to stay.

He believes the departure of the 38-year-old former Champions League winner could set the club back years.

He said: "This is going to take this club very far back. There are a lot of players in there at the moment in disbelief at what's happening.

"The next manager is going to have a tough job to pick people up because of the underlying feeling the boys have got."

He believes Lambert quit because he was fed up of fighting internal battles at the club.

He said: "Every club you go to there are obviously certain things you don't agree with but he was battling with everything and he did well to shield us from it. That's the sign of a good manager who is protecting his players.

"We won't know the full ins and outs of what he was fighting against, you never do, but it is clear to us he was fighting against things."

And he blames the board for not pulling out all the stops to keep him.

He said: "We've just had the most successful manager since Martin O'Neill in terms of points per games ratio, style of play everything about it.

"If the Gaffer has resigned why have they taken it?

"They should have said no. They should have tried to keep him. You have got to keep someone like that."