Birmingham City manager Steve Bruce is keeping an open mind over his prospects of signing striker Mikael Forssell on a permanent basis.
Bruce has achieved his first objective in securing the services of the Finnish international on loan for the rest of the season from Chelsea.
The City chief would dearly love to land Forssell who is rated in the £5 million sterling bracket after his impressive start at St Andrews with five goals in nine games.
But he is also aware that Forssell did put pen to paper on a new four-year contract with Chelsea only days before agreeing to move to the Midlands - an indication that he is in Claudio Ranieri's long term plans.
Bruce said: "Claudio has been fantastic towards us and Mikael. I can't thank him enough for letting us have one of his players for a year. But we'll just have to see what happens over the next few months as regards whether anything permanent happens or not. Mikael has stuck the ball in the net on a regular basis and five goals in nine games is a terrific return.
"Our top scorer last season got six Premiership goals and if someone can score 12, 14, 15 goals then it goes a long way to ensuring that you stay in the division."