Shock transfer revelations have emerged involving Birmingham City’s big-money summer signing, Kyogo Furuhashi.
Reports in Scotland have hinted that a return to former club, Celtic, could be on the cards for the 23-time Japanese international, whose misfortune in front of goal has continued at an extremely pricey cost for Blues and Chris Davies.
Indeed, the 30-year-old became a second eight-figure recruit for the Championship side in 11 months, following on from Jay Stansfield’s club-record switch from Fulham in August 2024, as he agreed terms on a three-year contract after a deal worth up to £10m was agreed with French Ligue 1 side, Stade Rennais, in July.
Unsurprisingly, this deal was viewed as the biggest statement which Birmingham made across the summer, during which a further 13 new signings were recruited on permanent or loan deals.
In his maiden interview with official club channels, Kyogo continued to make statements that aligned with the predictions that many outsiders had placed on Blues, who currently find themselves in 14th place, having accumulated 34 points from 26 games.
“I don’t want to talk a lot, but there’s a chance that we can go up to the Premier League. We all want to aim for that and after nine months, it will be great if we share the happiness of achieving that,” said Kyogo.
However, whilst Davies’ side are just seven points behind the play-offs after returning to winning ways against runaway leaders, Coventry City, on January 4th, Kyogo has split opinion amongst supporters
Across 23 appearances in the league, the striker has failed to score, although he would eventually net his second goal for the club in Saturday’s FA Cup victory at Cambridge United.
It was initially claimed that former Aston Villa boss and current Celtic interim manager, Martin O’Neill, was exploring a deal for the striker.
Since then, though, Davies has stated that still envisages him donning the royal blue for the foreseeable future, whilst O’Neill issued a similar stance ahead of his side’s victory over Dundee United.
“We’ve had no discussions at the moment about anything other than Kyogo giving his best and doing his best for Birmingham City,” said the Blues boss via Give Me Sport.
“Personally, I think he’s going to stay here and potentially battle through whatever comes in front of him.”
Whilst it will unsurprisingly frustrate Birmingham and their supporters as to how Kyogo’s stint has generally panned out thus far, not all in Davies’ squad may be feeling displeased, as a POTENTIAL exit could open the door for more guaranteed minutes.
As such, Football League World have identified two players who could fall into this category.
Marvin Ducksch
It had been an extremely slow start to his own Blues career for £1.75m recruit and former German international Marvin Ducksch, who, like Kyogo, was handed a three-year contract after signing from Werder Bremen in August.
After completing his maiden switch to English football, it was revealed that the 31-year-old arrived at St. Andrew’s with a calf issue, meaning he wouldn’t record his first start in the Championship until September 20th against Swansea City, before another subsequent absence left him out of action until October 27th.
Several tweaks made by Davies in a bid to improve short-term results have often impacted the Blues’ boss’ team selection, meaning Ducksch has only made 12 starts thus far.
However, 11 of those have come since the start of November, and he has picked up five goals in that time, which includes home braces against Norwich City and Coventry, also being the match-winner against the Sky Blues.
Of course, he is a different type of striker to Kyogo whilst also not being an archetypal ‘target man’, although he does offer Birmingham a clear focal point.
Kyogo was selected ahead of him for recent games against Southampton and Watford. However, if a return to Celtic was on the card, then Ducksch is certainly a guarantee to lead the line for the bulk of matches between now and May.
Kanya Fujimoto
Another Japanese who has found it hard to bed in at St. Andrew’s is attacking midfielder, Kanya Fujimoto.
Of course, the potentially obvious second inclusion on this list would be Lyndon Dykes. However, FLW understand the 48-time Scotland international could also be on his way amid interest from Charlton Athletic.
Yet, whilst Blues may target replacements for both Dykes and Kyogo, an exit could also see Fujimoto receive more minutes as a substitute in the ‘number 10’ role, particularly if Ducksch was to be replaced in-game and Jay Stansfield subsequently filled in as the main striker.
This is a development which occurred against Coventry, albeit it was ironically Kyogo who replaced Ducksch, whilst Fujimoto received his first league minutes in almost three months in place of Stansfield with a five-minute cameo.
In truth, it is also potentially hard to name any other concrete options, with FLW also revealing that fellow playmaker, Lewis Koumas, is set to return to Liverpool after a frustrating loan spell, whilst it remains to be seen what profile of striker Davies is looking to source to potentially replace either or both of Kyogo and Dykes with.