Birmingham City manager Pep Clotet has suggested that he is confident that the Blues have the plans in place to ensure that they are able to challenge towards the top end of the Championship table next season.

The Blues have endured a mixed season this term, with Clotet managing to get off to a reasonably strong start to life in charge at St Andrews, helping his side pick up consistent results during the first few months of the term, but their form fell away over the festive period and that saw them drop down the table.

Birmingham have managed to go on more of a positive run of form over the last few months, inspired by the form of January signing Scott Hogan, with the Blues’ ten-match unbeaten run in the Championship only being brought to an end by their 3-1 defeat at home to Reading last time – and that leaves them in 16^th place and heading for a mid-table finish.

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Speaking on his personal Twitter account in a Q and A with Birmingham supporters, Clotet suggested that he is feeling positive about the structure that the club have in place, and that it could help to provide the platform for them to mount a promotion push next season.

He said: "We must always have the highest of ambitions and be driven by that. That’s the challenge for many teams and that means you have to get things spot on to gain an advantage over the other contenders. We’ve now built a good platform to try and take those steps."

The verdict

This is an encouraging and confident response from Clotet, which suggests he believes the Blues could be in a strong position to mount a push for the play-offs next season, with the club likely to be having had to settle for a mid-table finish this term following what has been an inconsistent campaign.

The Blues have shown signs especially since the beginning of January that they have the potential to go on sustained periods of positive form in the league, which they will be looking to make sure they take into next season and manage to avoid suffering any long winless runs.

There could well be the prospect though that the Blues lose both Hogan and Jude Bellingham in the summer, which would leave two major holes in the side that would need to be filled with quality replacements, were they to be able to challenge for promotion next term.

Clotet’s comments, though, suggest that the aim very much is for them to challenge for the play-offs next term, and that they will be doing all they can in the summer to ensure that they have the tools available to them to help them drive towards that target.