Alan Curbishley is confident Birmingham City fans are realistic about next season's expectations.

The former West Ham United and Charlton Athletic boss is a former Birmingham player.

Curbishley told the Sunday Mercury: "If I'm a Birmingham City fan I'll be thinking: 'well, we should be better than the three that might go and if we do better than that, who knows? We could be midtable again or better'. You can't sniff at midtable anymore.

"Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham, Villa, Everton -- that's the top eight. So if you manage to creep into that top ten then that's a result."