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Two signings down, four more to come?

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On Thursday afternoon, Birmingham City announced the signing of Derby County defender Ryan Shotton, a move which had been in the pipeline for well over three weeks, and with Robert Tesche recently announced as well, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at how the rest of the transfer window could pan out for Blues.

Lets get one thing straight to start with, there are now three obvious areas that need addressing in Rowett’s squad and I am sure many will agree that we need two new strikers, a new winger and a new left back.

After the release of five players at the end of the season who will all have been on around £7,000 a week, plus four high earning loan players going back to their parent clubs (barring Shotton who has come back to the club), Blues could have quite a bit in the wage pot which would suggest to me that Rowett will move for four more players to strengthen his squad.

I know we would all like to see Jon Toral return to the club but unless Andrew Shinnie was sold, that move would never materialise, but like I have pointed out recently, never say never! But the number 10 role isn’t one that we should be stressed about at the moment. In my opinion, if we don’t sign a striker soon we could be in trouble next season.

Personally, I don’t think Clayton Donaldson has it in him to play another 46+ games in a season and with the future of James Vaughan still up in the air, bringing in a permanent striker would ease a lot of fears from those within the club as well as the fans.

In recent weeks, Blues have been linked with moves for numerous strikers but two names keep sticking to the back of my mind. Tom Bradshaw of Walsall is the main one and James Wilson from Manchester United is the other. If we could bring either one of those is sooner rather than later then I am sure most fans would be pretty chuffed.

Moving away from our alarming situation in the striking department of the club, Birmingham City could also do with a new winger, one that would preferably play on the right hand side in case David Cotterill has a bad spell of games after hardly having a rest this summer because of being on international duty with Wales.

It is always difficult to judge a wide player because they might have a fantastic game one week and then not have the confidence to go past a player the next. Other than Sone Aluko, no wingers have been linked with a move to the club and it is fair to say that unless something does come up out of the blue, we will be kept guessing on this situation until something is announced.

In my opinion, I think we will struggle to find a winger who can compete at this level who would be happy to miss a few games here and there. It might be worth scouting out the Premier League for players who are still in their developmental stages who are just looking to gain a little bit of experience.

Although we have a solid left back in the shape of Jonathan Grounds, it is quite clear that he needs some competition or at least someone who is of the same quality to take over from him should he have a dip in form.

Rowett has already highlighted that he would like to bring in a left back and as our co-editor Rob Wildey pointed out earlier this week, Blues did make a late bid for Tommy Spurr but our efforts were just too last minute so that move was a non-started.

On Thursday, we pointed out three left sided full backs who could rival Grounds to a starting spot but like wingers, full backs are very hard to come by and unless Rowett has something up his sleeve and it becomes quite obvious to everyone, I think we will be kept guessing for quite a while on this one.

For me, as soon as we sign a striker I will start to relax a little bit more because I think that is the position we are really lacking in at the moment, but, you never know, Rowett might have plans for some of our youth players next season so lets just sit tight and see what happens.

Blues fans, where do you think we need to strengthen next after announcing the signings of Ryan Shotton and Robert Tesche? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

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