Birmingham City are on course to secure their Championship status for another year but the future of the club remains unclear.

The Blues sit 17th with eight games left of John Eustace's first season in charge and while progress has been made under the young coach, it's hard to see him being able to continue the upward trajectory with the current owners in place.

Supporters want is a change at the top and there is some optimism that a consortium led by Jeremy Dale can finally be the ones to bring that.

We've examined what we know so far to investigate whether it is likely to happen...

What do we know so far?

At the end of January, The Athletic reported that a group led by Dale, a Birmingham-born businessman, were in talks over significant investment in the Championship club.

The Blues had made a statement earlier that month confirming that talks were being held with a third party over an investment deal for both St Andrew's and a shareholding in the club.

According to The Athletic, Dale's group believe the fundamentals of Maxi Lopez and Paul Richardson's takeover agreement, which broke down, could be revived.

Lopez and Richardson's two-step strategy was to purchase Vong Pech's minority stake before buying out BHSL and completing a full takeover two years' later.

The Daily Mirror reported last month that Richardson has now teamed up with the new consortium in an attempt to help push the takeover deal through but that as of the 4th of February, no significant progress had been made as the club needs to be sold in three tranches

In late February, Birmingham Live revealed that Dale had been showing members of his consortium around Birmingham's training ground.

Eustace confirmed this in an interview with Radio WM but revealed he had not spoken to the prospective new owners.

According to Birmingham Live, club figures are more hopeful that this takeover could be completed than they were with previous attempts.

Is it likely to happen?

Given the ups and downs we've seen with previous takeover attempts at Birmingham, and elsewhere in the EFL, it's hard to make a call on this.

The suggestion that there does appear to be greater confidence at the West Midlands club that Dale's consortium could get a takeover deal done is certainly positive.

It seems as though it's going to be about finding a solution in what is a very complex financial process.

There's still a long way to go but right now, there is reason to be optimistic.