Jermaine Pennant believes he has played the best football of his career this season - and the Birmingham winger has set his sights on forcing his way into the England squad under Sven-Goran Eriksson's successor.
Pennant has relished the freedom of the wide right role given him by Blues boss Steve Bruce since his £3million summer move from Arsenal, and has been a star performer in a season-long battle against relegation.
He has been linked with several leading clubs in the past few months, including Liverpool and Tottenham.
Pennant, who has already indicated he will stay at St Andrews even if City go down, has all his thoughts presently channelled in helping Birmingham preserve their top-flight status.
But he is looking past Eriksson's swansong at the 2006 World Cup and the former England Under-21 winger is ambitious to break through at senior international level.
Pennant, now 23, said: "I'm not thinking too much about England at the moment and everything has to be fully focused on Birmingham staying up.
"But we all know there is a new man coming in at the start of next season with England and I'll be trying to get into the squad, just like everyone else.
"Thanks to Blues, I have been given a role in the side that has allowed me to play the best football of my career this season. That's how good I feel about it."
Pennant is surprised Birmingham have struggled this season, although he believes the lengthy list of injuries has been a significant factor.
He said: "It has shocked me that we have found ourselves in trouble this season because we have a really talented squad here.
"When I first came to Blues I felt good about the place and knew this was a side capable of making progress.
"Even in pre-season this time round I really thought we'd be in the top half of the table. But when you get so many injuries to key players it's going to cause problems and that's what has held us back."
