Blues' academy plans on back burner

Birmingham vice-chairman Peter Pannu has put plans to revamp the club's academy on the back burner but insisted it remains vital to the future of the club.

Blues' supremo has hinted, once they have completed all their summer deals, there will be an overhaul of the club's academy and scouting network.

Pannu is committed to ensuring the club's long-term future by shaking up the youth development.

He said: "Once our business is done, I will be putting a lot of emphasis on restructuring the academy and our scouting department.

"As a club we want to continue to improve and these areas are to be looked at.

"We want to have the ability to develop the best young talent and scan the world for footballers, because football cannot be dependent on buying players for £10m and £20m all the time."

Pannu will sit down with academy manager Terry Westley to discuss plans on how to move the infrastructure of the club forward.

He said: "When it comes to bringing through our own players, I will sit down with Terry to see where we are and assess the last three or four years.

"I will look at how many players we have filtered through and if they have not made the first team why not?"