Birmingham City miss out on Newcastle United man as John Eustace discusses Jonathan Leko future

John Eustace has praised Jonathan Leko for making a good start to pre-season and insisted the wide-man is currently in his plans at Birmingham City.

The 23-year-old has played in all four of Blues’ pre-season friendlies, lasting 45 minutes against Walsall and Portimonense and the full 90 against Solihull Moors on Tuesday evening, while coming off the bench at Burton Albion.

In the last two he has been deployed at left wing-back and despite that not being his natural position he has got forward well, been a willing runner and created several chances for his team-mates.

That comes against the backdrop of last season of which he spent almost the entirety on loan with League One Charlton Athletic, however, with senior players so thin on the ground, Blues’ head coach says that at this stage he does not plan for Leko to move on.

“Not at the moment,” Eustace told BirminghamLive. “At the moment he is in the squad as you can see we have got 13-14 players ready to play and we have got four or five injuries to come back so at the moment Jon’s is very much in my line of thinking.

“Jonny has done terrifically. I think we have been here just over two weeks now and for two weeks now he has been fantastic, he has done ever so well in the games, he has been really positive and tonight at times he was excellent again so I have been really happy with Jonny”.

Birmingham City and a host of other Championship clubs are expected to miss out on the signing of Newcastle United man Dwight Gayle. The 32-year-old looks set to sign for Stoke City, with The Telegraph claiming he has had the first part of his medical today [Wednesday] and that the deal could be announced in the next few days.

That follows StokeonTrentLive’s revelation this