Birmingham City will be looking to improve their consistency in the upcoming campaign after only showing occasional glimpses of promise in the Championship last season.

A poor end to the previous term resulted in the Blues finishing 20th in the second-tier standings.

With the transfer window set to open on June 10th, Birmingham will be hoping to draft in some fresh faces who they believe will be able to help the club reach new heights.

The Blues may also have to make some decisions regarding the futures of current members of their squad.

Here, we have decided to take a look at two dilemmas that Birmingham head coach Lee Bowyer is facing this summer...

Who should Birmingham cut ties with in order to slash their wage bill?

In an interview with talkSPORT (as cited by the Birmingham Mail) earlier this month, Bowyer admitted that the club will need to slash their wage bill this summer in order to comply with Financial Fair Play.

Taking this into consideration, it will be intriguing to see who the Blues will opt to part ways with in order to avoid running the risk of breaking regulations.

Kristian Pedersen, Jeremie Bela and Connal Trueman are all set to officially leave the club in June when their contracts expire and thus this will have an effect on the club's wage bill.

Meanwhile, Harlee Dean could also make a permanent exit from St Andrew's this summer after being loaned out to Sheffield Wednesday earlier this year.

Dean, whose current deal at Birmingham runs until 2023, was placed on the transfer list last season and thus Bowyer will be keen to move him on in the coming months.

Will the Blues be able to bolster their squad by using the loan market to their advantage?

If Birmingham are unable to purchase players this summer, they will need to turn to the loan market for inspiration once again in order to have any chance of achieving a relative amount of success next season.

The likes of Lyle Taylor, Onel Hernandez and Matija Sarkic all managed to produce some impressive performances for the Blues in the previous term after joining the club on loan.

 

 

Taylor provided six direct goal contributions for the Blues in the second-tier whilst Hernandez scored three goals at this level.

Meanwhile, Sarkic managed to keep 10 clean-sheets in the Championship before having his season curtailed due to injury.

Birmingham could potentially try to strike fresh agreements for these aforementioned players or look elsewhere in their hunt for summer signings.