Birmingham City are working very hard to bring the right players to St Andrews according to chairman David Sullivan.
Blues are looking to strengthen their side ahead of the upcoming Premier League season, with the promoted club currently in talks with four targets.
Some players and clubs have ‘ridiculous’ wage demands according to Sullivan.
He has confirmed that club record signing Christian Benitez is due to undergo a medical later this week and then finalise his £6.2 million move from Santos Laguna.
Scott Dann and Geovanny Espinoza have already joined the club, while Stephen Carr has accepted a permanent contract.
Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart remains a target for Birmingham according to reports, as well as Cardiff’s Roger Johnson, Oguchi Onyewu and free agents Lee Bowyer and Djimi Traore.
“Since last season finished, it’s been non-stop,” Sullivan told the Birmingham Mail. “We’re working all hours of the day, seven days a week.
“During the last four weeks or so, I’ve never worked as hard as I have done since I’ve been in football. Negotiations have been incredibly stressful. Just when you think you’ve got someone, it changes.
“Another club might come in and hijack it, like Wolves did with the Coventry City player (Scott Dann) – and we then had to hijack it back. The demands of clubs, and players and agents – especially those out of contract or free – are ridiculous.
“But if you keep saying ‘no’, then you don’t have a team. So what do you do?”
Sullivan added: “We’re trying to put together a better team than the one that got us promotion. We want to give ourselves the best chance of a) survival next season and b) maybe a lot better. That’s the aim.”
Sullivan added: “What I would say to supporters is that we have not commented on any player, confirmed or denied stories on any player, unless he has been signed.
“This is because 1) it can be seen as tapping-up and illegal and 2) we don’t want to let supporters down if we don’t get who we want, they would just go ‘you were supposed to be in for him, why didn’t he sign?’.
“There is so much going on behind the scenes that people don’t know about. With the manager, we have discussed dozens and dozens of players and myself and Karren Brady in particular have been working ourselves into the ground.”
“We have got to get in at least one, if not two, new centre-halves,” he continued. “We have got to get in at least one central midfielder. Then we will see where we go.
“We’re in for eight or nine players, with negotiations ongoing with three or four. All the time things change.”