Dean Smith agrees with the decision to move the transfer deadline forward to the start of the season but believes the EFL one must close before their season starts.

Currently, the Premier League kicks off a week after the Championship, meaning that the Bees could still, in theory, lose players to Premier League sides.

And Smith doesn't want that situation to continue so called for the window to close ahead of the first game of the EFL campaign, as everyone would know where they stood.

He said: “The Premier League kicks off after us so if it did run in line, it'd be after the season started.

“The ideal situation is the EFL's transfer window closes before the start of the season and you know where you're at before you start.”

The Birmingham Three: Jota, Maxime Colin, Harlee Dean all moved after the start of the season

The move will be put to a formal vote in February next year ahead of any changes being implemented in time for the 2018 summer window.

The EFL proposed clubs could continue to sign players on loan until the traditional end of the window on 31 August and the proposals has been overwhelmingly supported.

EFL Chief Executive Shaun Harvey said: “Today was all about understanding a direction of travel in what is a hugely emotive matter not only for clubs and managers but supporters as well.

“The clubs have been clear in their mandate and we will now go away and look to develop a set of proposals before moving this matter on to the next stage, which would be a formal vote in order to change our regulations.”