Is there more to Blues’ preseason games than meets the eye

Yesterday afternoon, June 13th, Birmingham City announced their final first team preseason friendly which will see them face Scottish Championship side Hibernian and with the fixture list now final, it got me thinking, is there more to some of our games than meets the eye?

Over the past two weeks, Gary Rowett has finalised which teams he wants his side to do battle with during July and the first week of August ahead of what looks set to be another challenging Championship season next year.

In recent weeks, most notably the last, Blues have been linked with moves for former Hibs striker Anthony Stokes and they are reported to have made an enquiry for Walsall’s star striker, Tom Bradshaw.

Now, I may be completely wrong here but I have a hunch that there may be something in place already with the Saddlers to do with the Welsh striker that either club has let onto just yet and I personally don’t think that the pair will let onto either.

Could it be possible that Birmingham City would be allowed first refusal on the striker who has scored 40 goals in the last two seasons if they agreed to play the League One side in a friendly at the Banks’ stadium on the 19th of July?

Most of you are probably thinking, what a load of rubbish, or where has this guy thought this up from. But, think logically about it! On the day where Blues announce their final preseason game, the club supposedly make an enquiry for him. The Saddlers have already rejected a bid from Barnsley for him, so are they waiting for Blues to make their move?

This idea may be the stupidest thing that I have ever come up with but I keep thinking it through and it just works. The same goes for the Hibs game, it is one that came out of nowhere.

If you predicted that Blues would announce that they would play the Scottish side then I will applaud you and shake your hand if ever I met you at a game but is this another case where Blues have been told, we will let you have first refusal on him if you play us in a preseason friendly.

Albeit, Stokes wasn’t Hibs’ player on a permanent contract and they have since said that they can’t afford the striker hence why they are backing out of the race, but is that because the player has already been told that we have first offer on him?

Strikers have been the main source of our transfer speculation since the season finished and to see these two highly talented forwards linked with the club is fantastic and personally, out of the two, I would love to see Bradshaw signed up on a long contract, even if we have to pay £1 million for him!

Blues fans, do you think there is more behind our preseason games? Let us know in the comment section down below!