Blues boss Paul Hurst has confirmed that Luke Chambers will continue as his skipper during the season ahead.
"Luke’s captain whenever he’s in the team,” Hurst said at today’s Open Day. "If he’s not in the team he’ll still be a big voice around the place.
"At the minute he’s probably one of the names, touch wood, guaranteed to be in that starting line-up because, he’s done well anyway in fairness to him, but he hasn’t got too much competition at this moment in time.”
Hurst says he has seen the leadership qualities of the central defender who initially wore the armband under Paul Jewell and then Mick McCarthy.
"I think in the pre-season games where are there aren’t as many fans and it’s quiet, you can probably get a better sense of that than you sometimes do when you’re playing in front of 20,000 or whatever it is,” he added. "A lot of those messages get lost.
"He’s a big presence at the football club and you need people like that. Whether they’re always the most vocal, sometimes they’re quiet ones that do the work that as a manager you could miss if you didn’t speak to people and understand what’s going on in the dressing room and around the training ground. So, hopefully he’s enjoying it, a new start, a new challenge for him as well.”