It's probably fair to say that things haven't been quite as stable at St Andrew's as supporters of Birmingham City would have wanted them to be recently.

After last season's much-publicised points deduction cost them any chance of a late push for the Championship play-offs, the summer brought yet more disappointment as the unexpected departure of manager Garry Monk was followed by the more expected exit of last season's top scorer and Player of the Season Che Adams, who made the move to the promised land of the Premier League with Southampton.

Despite that, it has been a pretty solid start to life after Monk and Adams for the Blues this season.

Under Monk's former assistant Pep Clotet, Birmingham have won three and drawn one of their opening six league games of the season, leaving the Midlands side ninth in the division heading into the first international break this season.

Even so, there does seem to be one glaring issue around Birmingham's squad that surely has to be a concern heading into the rigours of a Championship season: strikers.

Or rather, a lack of strikers.

Right now there are just two recognised senior centre forwards on the books at St Andrew's, with Isaac Vassell's deadline day move to Championship rivals Cardiff City leaving Lukas Jutkiewicz and summer signing Alvaro Gimenez facing the somewhat unenviable task of leading the line on their own for the Blues until the January transfer window at least.

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Given the notorious physicality of a Championship campaign, it is inevitable that injuries will set in across the course of the season, and with those first six games of the year yielding just six goals, the decision not to add to their attacking options does seem to be something that could be a cause for concern Birmingham fans, and those frustrations won't be helped by the latest news emerging from the club.

According to recent reports from the Birmingham Mail, the club failed with a late deadline day bid to sign striker Mario Gavranovic from Croatian outfit Dinamo Zagreb, with Birmingham apparently not giving themselves enough time complete the deal before the close of the deadline on the eighth of August.

Not only will this update leave Birmingham fans questioning the state the club will be left in should one or both of Jutkiewicz and Gimenez pick up a damaging injury between now and the window reopening in January, but there will also be questions of why a move such as this was left so late in the window.

The lack of attacking numbers was evidently going to create concerns for Birmingham in the aftermath of Adams' departure, and while Vassell was still at the club until deadline day, you do have to wonder why he was allowed to leave before the club were certain that a deal for Gavranovic was in place.

As a result, you feel that Birmingham are now walking a tightrope for the next few months with regards to Jutkiewicz and Gimenez.

Considering Adams made his move to St Mary's for a reported £15million was confirmed at the start of July, there was both time and funds available for the Blues to address that issue.

If the risk of not doing that backfires then, it seems that Birmingham will no one to blame, but themselves.