'Pregnant pause' - The state of play with Birmingham City's transfers after Championship fixtures reveal

Birmingham City now know they will start the 2022/2023 Championship campaign at Luton Town’s Kenilworth Road in just over five weeks. They will end it, 281 days later, at home to Sheffield United with hopefully at least 55 points on the board and free from fears that this might be the season when years of circling the plughole finally sees them disappear.

That fear arises from the uncertainty surrounding Blues. While everyone wants to see (the right) new owners move into St Andrew’s, the takeover process has been unsettling and it feels like there's a pregnant pause, with the answer to every question being dependent on who’s actually in charge. After all, who wants to commit to a cost they could pass on to someone else?

Nowhere is that more true than in the area of transfers, the lifeblood of every football club. The successful ones buy low, develop players, benefit from individual improvement and either win promotion or sell high. It is a strategy that has put Brentford in the Premier League.

The less successful ones sign players to big contracts, with no sell on value. Of course the ‘successful’ route requires funds to invest in the first place, which leads us back to the owners. The current lot have invested masses with very little return but in recent windows they have presided over a pattern of free agents and loans.

If they remain in charge Lee Bowyer seems to think it’ll be more of the same this summer. If they don’t things might get more interesting. What won’t change is the fact that people in senior positions at the club are mindful of the Financial Fair Play situation and the need to bring down the wage bill.

Craig Gardner’s ‘three-year plan’ has been lampooned but it’s three years for a reason – that the