One former loanee signs, another soon to follow?

Birmingham City fans up and down the country have been sat eagerly waiting for the club to announce the first new signing of the summer, and on Friday afternoon, they were rewarded for their patience when the club announced that they had signed Robert Tesche on a three-year deal.

On Thursday evening, Birmingham Mail blogger Shane Ireland revealed in an exclusive on Newshub that ex-Nottingham Forest midfielder Tesche would be returning to the club, and to the surprise of many, the announcement came sooner than expected.

Less than 24 hours after that story broke, online reports coming from HITC Sport revealed that Blues had offered Derby County an improved deal to bring Ryan Shotton back to the club after the defender impressed Gary Rowett during his brief loan spell with Blues last season.

So, with a deal already having been done for one former loan player in the shape of Tesche, it now looks like it will be a case of when, and not if, Birmingham City will announce the signing of Shotton on a permanent deal.

During his time with Blues, Tesche became a very influential player in the central midfield role and bringing him back to the club shows a sign of intent because if Rowett can get him playing with the same sort of confidence that he had during the 2014/15 season, then what is to stop us pushing ourselves further up the table next year?

Now that Tesche has signed for the club, it means that Rowett has some big decisions to make in terms of who he will play in midfield, and how many midfielders he will play with because in my opinion, we will have one of the strongest midfields in the division.

Last summer’s bargain buy Maikel Kieftenbeld, the ever present Stephen Gleeson and Mr.Versatile himself, David Davis, will all do battle once again for starting places next season and with Tesche thrown into the mix, our midfield next season looks very promising and I wouldn’t put it past Rowett starting with three out of the four on more than one occasion throughout the season.

Similarly to the addition of Tesche, when Shotton finally puts pen to paper on a move to Blues, it should sure up our central defensive partnership for the entirety of the new Championship season should both players stay fit.

Captain Michael Morrison and Shotton will be one of the best pairings in the division next season, and with both being such threats in both boxes, I wouldn’t bet against either of them hitting the five goal barrier next season because corners and freekicks could become even more beneficial to us should we work on them properly.

Like the majority of fans, I was expecting Blues to announce the signing of Tesche next week and the news of signing that was announced today came as a little bit of a surprise and it leaves me wanting one question answered, how many more signings can we expect this summer?

Blues fans, do you think the addition of Ryan Shotton and Robert Tesche will make our squad a lot stronger next season? Let us know in the comment section down below!