Birmingham City have agreed a deal that will see Matija Sarkic spend next season at St. Andrew's.

What's the talk?

That's according to a report by The Athletic, who claim that the Blues have agreed to take the Wolverhampton Wanderers goalkeeper on a season-long loan deal after impressing during a trial period at the club.

The report continues by stating that the 23-year-old will now challenge for a place in the Birmingham starting XI ahead of the club's upcoming Championship campaign, with Neil Etheridge looking likely to be sidelined for what could be a number of months following his hospitalisation due to illness.

Finally, it is reported that the Montenegro international's switch to the Championship side is expected to be confirmed by the club in the very near future.

Bowyer masterclass

With Lee Bowyer having already secured the services of a number of impressive arrivals at St. Andrew's in the summer transfer window, with all of Jordan Graham, Ryan Woods, Chuks Aneke, Dion Sanderson, Juan Familia-Castillo and Tahith Chong linking up with the Blues squad, considering just how much potential Sarkic appears to possess, the 23-year-old looks to be yet another transfer masterclass by the 44-year-old manager.

Indeed, the 'keeper impressed over his 26 League One appearances while on loan at Shrewsbury Town last season, with the £90k-rated man keeping nine clean sheets, conceding an average of just one goal per game and making an average of 2.3 saves per league fixture.

These returns saw the man Kris Boyd dubbed an "excellent" player earn an average SofaScore match rating of 6.80, ranking him as the Shrews' joint 11th-best performer in the English third tier.

Furthermore, the £4.9k-per-week shot-stopper also impressed in Birmingham's recent 3-0 pre-season friendly victory against Cheltenham Town, keeping a clean sheet and making a number of important saves.

And, with Etheridge's fitness ahead of the start of the Championship season appearing questionable at present, Bowyer was very much in need of another solid option between the Blues sticks, with Sarkic seeming to be exactly that.

In other news: Alan Nixon drops 8-word transfer claim that'll surely have Birmingham fans buzzing