Birmingham City latest: ex-Aston Villa man's warning, Blackburn Rovers linked, Alex Pritchard’s absence | OneFootball

Birmingham City picked up a huge three points in their battle to stay in the Championship when they beat Coventry City 3-0 at St. Andrew’s last time out.

It has been a chaotic campaign for Blues, with Tom Wagner and the new ownership group making the surprise decision to replace John Eustace with Wayne Rooney late last year.

As we know, that didn’t work out, with Tony Mowbray succeeding the England legend, but Mowbray’s illness meant Blues turned to former boss Gary Rowett for the run-in.

Despite a difficult start, the victory over the Sky Blues lifted Birmingham out of the bottom three and with a game against already relegated Rotherham United up next, they will fancy their chances of pulling clear.

So, the primary focus is all on that huge game, but there’s a lot going on involving Blues right now, and here we provide a round-up of the latest news…

Dion Dublin issues stadium warning

Despite the on-field worries, it’s an exciting time for Birmingham fans after Wagner revealed some grand plans as the club aim to move into a new stadium in the years to come.

It highlights the ambition of the club, and even if Blues are relegated, there’s still a sense that they’re heading in the right direction under the new regime.

Yet, former Aston Villa striker Dion Dublin delivered a cautious message, as he insisted they must "walk" before they "run", and stressed the need to get things right on the pitch before they talk about attracting new fans and improving the brand.

He added: “They'll love the new stadium, but if the here and now is rubbish it might never get to that.

Blackburn Rovers eye John Ruddy while Ivan Sunjic and Keshi Anderson face uncertain futures

It’s the time of year when clubs make decisions on which players they want to retain, with Blues, like most others, having a host of players who are out of contract in the summer.

Obviously, Birmingham’s situation is complicated by the fact that they don’t know what division they will be in next season, and dropping to League One is going to have financial implications.

So, you would expect calls to be made in the coming weeks when Birmingham know they’re in the Championship or the third tier.

Ivan Sunjic, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Keshi Anderson, John Ruddy, Marc Roberts and Scott Hogan are among those who see their deals expiring in the summer.

Whilst it’s by no means certain that those players will be moving on, journalist Alex Dicken revealed that Ruddy and Anderson "haven’t really given any indication" that talks have taken place over an extension.

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Rowett has had some big calls to make with the squad in recent weeks, and that’s meant leaving some senior players out for the past few games.

On Saturday, Alex Pritchard was not involved, which was a surprise given the pedigree the ex-Sunderland man has at this level, even if he hasn’t found his best form for Blues since his January arrival.

However, the attacking midfielder wasn’t missing through injury, as he simply wasn’t selected for the win.

Exact details on why Pritchard missed out haven’t been shared, but reporter Brian Dick has confirmed that there was an issue with the player and Rowett after his substitute appearance against Cardiff, days before the Coventry game.

“When he came on (against Cardiff) he was playing in that number 10 role, then when the next change was made with Gary Gardner coming on, I think Rowett wanted to get Gardner slightly further forward and that shunted Pritchard out to the left.

“By that stage Keshi Anderson did seem to be playing everywhere or nowhere. I don’t know how I would describe it but I think Pritchard asked for clarity from the bench. Maybe that’s a generous description of what went on. There was an exchange with the bench, but I obviously have no idea what the contents of that exchange were.”