After their best ever Premier League finish, Birmingham City will be looking to confirm themselves as a top flight fixture with another impressive season.

A brilliant, record breaking season, which included only losing twice at St. Andrew’s, will be hard to match, let alone beat.

Manager Alex McLeish has kept most of the nucleus of last season’s side but the loss of goalkeeper Joe Hart, who returned to parent club Manchester City after his loan spell, will be a big blow. Big Eck was quick to resolve the issue though, by snapping up England goalkeeper Ben Foster from Manchester United for £6million. The defence will be more or less the same as last year, which is no bad thing. Captain Stephen Carr has signed a new deal and along with Roger Johnson, Scott Dann and Liam Ridgewell, they make a formidable back four. Birmingham were very lucky last year with injuries, McLeish was able to name the same side in 12 consecutive league games which is almost unheard of in the modern ‘rotation era’. But with just David Murphy and Stuart Parnaby offering back-up, who are no strangers to injuries themselves,  it could cause problems if the injury list starts to pile up.

Midfield seems to be the busiest part of the squad for McLeish. Lee Bowyer and Barry Ferguson were terrific last season in the middle of the park but you’d expect Bowyer to take a back seat this season to the likes of Craig Gardner and Michel. Summer signing Enric Valles from NAC Breda has also impressed in pre-season and could be pushing for a spot. The wide areas still look weak though, Sebastian Larsson and James McFadden are the only genuine wide players in the squad. Keith Fahey often fills in on the left hand side on midfield but doesn’t really pose much of an attacking threat. McLeish has looked to bolster his side in those areas but has yet to be successful. Charles N’Zogbia was top of the list for Big Eck but it seems Wigan value the player too highly. Liverpool’s Ryan Babel, a target in January, has come back on the radar and would offer something different to a rather cumbersome looking midfield.

McLeish is well known for doing his homework on players and will not be forced in to making rash signings. His ‘due diligence’ is sometimes criticised by fans and the lack of transfer activity has had the natives restless. The forward line has been no easier in finding players for McLeish. Ecuadorian Christian Benitez went back to Mexico as McLeish didn’t think the deal to make the transfer permanent offered good value. He did add to his strikers though with the signing of 6’8’’ Serbian, Nikola Zigic, the type of target man that was so desperately needed last season. Other targets such as Bobby Zamora, Cacau and Fabrizio Miccoli haven’t come to any fruition and now that veteran goalscorer Kevin Phillips is injured, goals are going to be hard to come by. Cameron Jerome will look to improve on his 11 goals from last season although that was a very good return for a player that has received so much stick from fans. Gary O’Connor might feature now and again and Marcus Bent is still with the squad but neither are of Premier League standard. McLeish thought AZ Alkmaar striker Moussa Dembele was close to signing but the Belgian decided against a move to Birmingham and looks set to join Fulham. Former Blackburn hitman, Matt Derbyshire, has been linked with a loan move to St Andrew’s and would add depth to the depleted forward line.

Birmingham start the season away at Sunderland on Saturday and the main focus for the season according to McLeish will be to stay up. This may seem very modest for a team that finished ninth last year but with similar sides such as Bolton, Sunderland and Stoke strengthening, it may be a harder task this year. Birmingham should still have enough in the tank to comfortably stay up but depending on new signings, it will be hard work which should see Big Eck’s men finish anywhere between 12th and 15th.