Chris Davies promises ‘none of that’ over Birmingham City’s transfer plans

Chris Davies will do his due diligence to ensure Birmingham City recruit the right characters to lead their charge to win promotion from League One.

New Blues boss Davies will oversee a major summer rebuild after 10 players from last season’s squad left. Further departures are not beyond the realms of possibility, with the likes of Ethan Laird, Krystian Bielik, Paik Seung-ho and Jordan James likely to command suitors.

Experienced duo John Ruddy and Lukas Jutkiewicz are out of contract at the end of this month. Jutkiewicz is expected to take his Blues career into a ninth season, but Ruddy has already spoken to other clubs and could move on.

During his second interview with Blues TV, Davies stressed the importance of signing the right people as well as the players. “For me it’s critical,” he said. “I don’t want to be successful with bad people.

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“I want to be successful with good characters who are aligned in terms of the respect they show others and the way they behave. If you want to be a successful team, you need this.

“There’s the football part, but one of the first things I’ll ask when I’m looking at a player is character references from people I know, because we’ve all seen great footballers who are very unmanageable and pure and I just do it” doesn’t fit. There will be none of this.

“The people who come will want to be here, they will be very dedicated and they will be good footballers.”

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