Championship club Birmingham City have been ruled out of the race for Sheffield Wednesday's Josh Windass and Hibernian's Kevin Nisbet, with Lee Bowyer not interested in signing either striker according to Birmingham Live.

This news about the former is no real surprise, with Alan Nixon reporting last week that the Blues were unwilling to pay the £5m required to take him away from Hillsborough and many other sides interested in the 27-year-old.

Now the Owls' wages situation has been sorted out, he may be content staying with Darren Moore's side according to his dad and pundit Dean Windass as one of the few Sheffield Wednesday players not out of contract this summer.

Any interested side in the forward will also have to get past his club's tough stance, with the 27-year-old not for sale at any price in the next couple of months according to Yorkshire Live.

Meanwhile, 24-year-old Kevin Nisbet was linked with a move to St Andrew's as recently as this morning, with the Daily Mail reporting that they are still in the running for Scottish international, along with Swansea, Brentford, Nottingham Forest, former Scottish Premiership champions Celtic and Russian outfit FC Krasnodar.

The forward was called up by Steve Clarke for this year's European Championships - and came on as a substitute against the Czech Republic, England and Croatia in his national side's group games before they were eliminated.

Domestically, he scored 12 goals in 30 Scottish top tier appearances for Hibernian but after making multiple bids for the 24-year-old in January, they now seemed to have ended their interest in him.

The Verdict

Both strikers are very good players and would do a good job for the Blues - but Lee Bowyer has a smaller budget this summer than his predecessor in Aitor Karanka and this has probably contributed to the decision not to pursue the duo.

Finding a lower league gem on the cheap might be the route they go down instead and with the West Midlands side already recruiting former Charlton and MK Dons striker Chuks Aneke on a free transfer, it just shows it can be done if you get there quick enough and put an attractive offer on the table.

And while Scott Hogan and Lucas Jutkiewicz are good options to have in the Championship, it feels as though they just need one more man in the striking department. 15-goal forward Aneke is a good start, now it's time to pursue one more forward.