Birmingham City boss Pep Clotet has expressed his delight after the club brought in Jeremie Bela on a three-year contract yesterday.

The former Albacete man was a target for Blues all summer, however a contractual dispute with the Spanish side has meant he was unable to play so far this season.

But, that has now been resolved and the Championship side announced his arrival on their official site.

And, Clotet told the club's media what he expects from the player and even suggested he could be involved against Fulham this weekend.

"I am very pleased because he was one of the targets that we identified a long time ago, I am very happy the Club had the resilience to go for him, we wanted Jeremie in the summer but it didn’t happen. Jeremie has great pace, football is turning to a game of speed.

"It is very important, we know we are right on Jeremie, he was training with us for a couple of weeks, he has looked sharp, he is ready to start helping the team as soon as we want him too. If he gets clearance today, then he will be ready for selection."

Blues are currently three points away from the top six and will hope to close that gap by picking up three points against the Cottagers on Saturday.

The verdict

The supporters will be very encouraged by these comments as it shows that Clotet is extremely excited by the new signing and he clearly thinks Bela will have a big role to play moving forward.

With Blues having tracked the player for a while now they are confident he will make a big impact in the Championship.

Now, it's down to Bela to repay that faith and he could get a chance to do that this weekend.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.