Don Goodman has already told Rangers’ latest signing it’s not a step up from Luton now Celtic are i the firing line

Don Goodman has told Kyogo he had it “easy” at Celtic and has warned the Japanese it will be tougher to score goals for Birmingham City.

The striker left Parkhead in January in a £10million switch to Rennes, but his stint in Ligue 1 was a disaster with Kyogo spending most of his time either on the bench or not in the squad before cutting his losses and joining Blues for the same fee this summer.

Chris Davies’ ambitious side won the League One title at a canter last year and have been backed by many to push for Premier League promotion given the financial backing in place from their American owners SCL, who include NFK legend Tom Brady.

Goodman reckons Kyogo is a smart buy by Birmingham, but dismissively claimed that scoring was a simple task when playing for the Scottish Premiership champions, insisting that the goals won’t come as easily in the English Championship.

The former Motherwell star’s comments come just days after he told new Rangers signing Thelo Aasgaard that his switch from Luton Town to Ibrox wasn’t a step up, and his latest take is unlikely to win him any friends north of the border either.

“Kyogo Furuhashi is an excellent signing,” Goodman told talkSPORTBET. “He’s an excellent player. There’s no doubt about that. He’s going to be a handful that could really hurt Championship defences, but he can’t win promotion on his own. He’s going to need all the other areas of the team to function really and to provide him with opportunities.

Don Goodman

“I’ve already alluded to the SPFL. When you play for Celtic in the SPFL, invariably you dominate games, you’re going to be winning games, getting chances and in most of the games you can have it relatively easy.

“That won’t be the case for him at Birmingham so they’ll have to work at it but they have recruited a really really good player and a player with a work ethic that the fans will love. The fans are going to absolutely love watching him.

“Kyogo is a player with hunger and a desire – he’s going to be an absolute handful for Championship defences this year.”

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