Jonathan Grounds: Birmingham City defender signs new deal

Jonathan Grounds started his career at Middlesbrough, for whom he played 37 times

Birmingham City defender Jonathan Grounds has signed a contract extension tying him to the Championship club until June 2017.

Grounds, 27, has scored twice in 47 appearances after joining Blues on a two-year deal last summer from Oldham.

That helped Blues finish 12th under Gary Rowett, having been second from bottom when Lee Clark, the man who signed Grounds, was sacked in October.

Rowett has so far added only four new signings ahead of the new season.

"I'm quite comfortable with our group," Rowett told BBC WM. "But I am looking to add to that. There are some teams out there spending vast amounts of money, but we have lots of thing going in the back ground."

He has been in the market for two players, Watford's Diego Fabbrini and Nottingham Forest's Robert Tesche, who were both on loan with Blues last season.

He lost out on Fabbrini when he went to Middlesbrough instead and Rowett will remain both patient and candid.

"Last year it took 30 or 40 approaches to different players," he added. "But, in my attempts to keep people informed, the second I mention a name, there's then 55 headlines that he's gone somewhere else."