Paul Devlin's warning for Blues stars

Birmingham favourite Paul Devlin has warned Blues' stars to knuckle down or risk falling behind.

Alex McLeish's men returned to pre-season training this morning ahead of their three-game trip to Hong Kong and China, which kicks off on July 18.

And Devlin, who made 141 appearances in two spells at St Andrew's, believes the players must take their summer seriously.

He said: "You find the lads who do miss pre-season for whatever reason never catch up throughout the course of the year.

"It's a vitally important stage that also, on the flip side, is the least enjoyable stage for every player.

"For the 15 years I was a professional I tried everything to get fit without a hard pre-season but it is vitally important."

But the 38-year-old, who also had a brief stay at Walsall in 2006, admits the players will hate returning after their summer break.

He said: "Pre-season is the worst part of the year, because you know you're going to be absolutely running your heart out for five or six weeks with no game at the end of it."

McLeish has already added to his squad with Nikola Zigic, Ben Foster and Enric Valles who will all meet their new team-mates over the summer.

But the manager still wants to bolster his strikeforce and the club had a £6million bid for Fulham's Bobby Zamora rejected last month.

But Devlin, who scored 38 goals for Blues, reckons Zamora isn't the man McLeish should be looking at.

He said: "Bobby's had his best season ever last year for Fulham, but he's not the type of forward I would be going after.

"Zamora's played a lot of Premier League football and I saw Blues linked with Carlton Cole as well, but both are very similar to Cameron Jerome.

"Blues need a different type of forward, somebody who would nick a goal out of nothing not someone big, strong, powerful and quick, who's going to bustle people over.

"They need somebody who, when the ball bounces in the box from a corner, he's there to tap it in.

"A real 18-yard box player."