Queens Park Rangers are interested in Birmingham City's Harlee Dean as they look to sign a centre-back this month.

It's no secret that Mark Warburton is desperate to bring in a new defensive option, with that position a priority for the boss going into this window.

However, the R's have suffered a setback early on after they missed out on Steve Cook who joined Nottingham Forest. That forced QPR to look elsewhere and West London Sport have claimed that Dean is a target.

The 30-year-old has been made available for transfer by Lee Bowyer, with the Blues boss not even including the defender in his matchday squad for recent games.

Therefore, a deal is there to be done and the update states Warburton is keen on working with Dean having managed him during his time in charge of Brentford earlier in his career, so he is someone he knows well.

Dean has made 15 Championship appearances in this campaign though, with the last of those coming in late November before he was frozen out by Bowyer.

The verdict

On the face of it this wouldn't be the most exciting signing for QPR as there won't be many, if any, Birmingham fans that are disappointed to see Dean go.

Having said that, he has shown in the past that he can be a good player at this level and a change of club, to work with a manager he knows, could be what he needs to get his career back on track.

If the interest is genuine, there aren't many obstacles to this deal happening so you wouldn't be surprised to see it go through.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.