Cameron Jerome fears he will be overlooked when Birmingham City open their Championship campaign on Saturday but insists he still has a future at St Andrew’s despite the presence of four other strikers.

The 21-year-old, who joined for £3 million from Cardiff City two summers ago, has been a marginal figure under manager Alex McLeish and even spent the end of last season playing out of position in midfield.That situation has not changed in warm-up matches – he came off the bench on to the right wing at Leicester City last week and on to the left flank against Fulham at the weekend – as McLeish shuffled his attacking options without ever alighting upon his England Under-21 international.

Having brought in Kevin Phillips on a free transfer and paid more than £1 million for Marcus Bent, both established Premier League performers, the Scot has rotated them with star player James McFadden and his international team-mate Garry O’Connor. That has left Jerome looking like the proverbial uninvited guest and expecting that the team will walk out at home to Sheffield United in two days’ time without him in it. However, he is not even certain of that. Jerome says he is not sure where he stands in McLeish’s thinking.

“I don’t have a clue,” he said. “You will have to speak to the manager about that. He has not really given anything away. He has brought players in, everyone has got to fight for their positions. I don’t think he knows his team for the start of the season yet, there is still training to work your way into the manager’s plans.

“If you are coming on it is hard to get into the game, especially in a pre-season friendly. You have just got to try all you can.

“It’s hard to tell where I am with my preparation because I have not really featured as much as I wanted to in pre-season so I don’t know how fit I am. I played a few minutes against Fulham, enjoyed them and felt I did OK.”

Indeed it was Jerome who set up the Sebastian Larsson equaliser. After a characteristic surge along the sideline he cut infield and rolled an inviting pass across the penalty area for the Swede to claim his second goal in as many games. Jerome also made Phillips’ winner in the 3-2 victory at Walkers Stadium last Tuesday week.

While he doesn’t relish operating in midfield, he accepts it is something he must do. “You are asked to do a job and you have to get on with it. I don’t particularly like it but that’s football,” he said. “You get paid to do a job and if you are asked to play out of position once or twice it’s not the end of the world. I just come on, do a job, get my head down and try my hardest.

“My favourite position is obviously through the middle. That’s where I think I am the most effective, that’s where I want to play. He knows that, we are short of bodies at the moment and he knows I am effective there.

“I have done it in this division, my track record speaks for itself. If I play and am given chances, I score goals. I think I can do that for this team, I don’t see any reason why I have to move on just because the manager has brought in a couple of strikers that’s not going to change anything. There were four or five strikers last season.”

But the Huddersfield-born forward thinks he still has a future at the club and accepts that Phillips, Bent and McFadden are all likely to appear before him given they were signed by McLeish.

“He has brought a couple of strikers in so he has to justify why he has brought them in,” Jerome said. “I know they are probably going to start the season ahead of me. It’s a case of getting my head down and showing what I am about because my chance will come.

“If we don’t start the season right then he is under pressure a little bit because we are favourites to go back up. Maybe my chance would come then if I don’t start the season. There are 46 games and everyone’s got a part to play.”

McLeish has certainly never suggested that he does not see Jerome as a part of his squad. In fact, speaking after Saturday’s 1-1 draw, he praised the youngster’s versatility and promised him he will be given his chance.

“It’s all about showing strength of character and fighting for a place,” the manager said. “But Cameron can start games for us and I’ve no doubt he will start games for us. He has other strings to his bow in terms of playing from the wide area, you’ve seen he can cause some damage from there.”