{"id":208896,"date":"2025-06-23T23:30:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T23:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/208896\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T23:30:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T23:30:17","slug":"birmingham-city-will-have-a-stunning-new-line-up-if-gray-fujimoto-and-kyogo-sign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/208896\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham City will have a stunning new line-up if Gray, Fujimoto and Kyogo sign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birmingham City have aleready added German defender Phil Neumann to their squad and more new signings will follow\"Alex<\/p>\n

Birmingham City reporter for BirminghamLive and the Birmingham Mail<\/p>\n

\"DemaraiDemarai Gray in action for Jamaica in the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup<\/p>\n

Minor tweaks rather than major surgery is the order of the day for Birmingham City<\/a> in this transfer window.<\/p>\n

Chris Davies<\/a> laid the foundations last season by building a team that won League One with a record-breaking 111 points, and many of that squad will be kept on for the Championship.<\/p>\n

Continuity was key for Ipswich Town two years ago when they achieved back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League, and it\u2019s feasible that Blues could start their opening day fixture with a similar XI to last season.<\/p>\n

Ben Davies and Kieran Dowell have returned to Rangers but Chris Davies still has nine members of his preferred starting line-up from the second half of last term.<\/p>\n

Phil Neumann has arrived on a free transfer from Hannover 96, Brighton goalkeeper James Beadle is expected to follow, and there are a number of rumours doing the rounds regarding further additions.<\/p>\n

BirminghamLive<\/strong> understands Demarai Gray, Kanya Fujimoto and Kyogo Furuhashi are on Blues\u2019 wish-list, but whether the club can close deals is another matter.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, we have put together two possible XIs for the opening day of the Championship season \u2013 one with players already in the building that Davies can start working with this week and another with players who could become Blues players in the next month or so.<\/p>\n

Blues\u2019 current best XI<\/strong><\/p>\n

(4-2-3-1):<\/strong> Allsop; Laird, Klarer, Neumann, Cochrane; Iwata, Paik; Gardner-Hickman, Willumsson, Anderson; Stansfield<\/p>\n

Possible XI if Blues sign their targets\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Balance is everything in Davies\u2019 preferred 4-2-3-1 shape. The width comes from right-back Ethan Laird and the left-winger making Gray, whose game is about speed and creativity, the perfect signing in many ways.<\/p>\n

The right-winger is allowed to drift inside which plays to the strengths of left-footed number 10 Fujimoto, leaving record signing Jay Stansfield and the prolific Kyogo to interchange.<\/p>\n

(4-2-3-1):<\/strong> Beadle; Laird, Klarer, Neumann, Cochrane; Iwata, Paik; Fujimoto, Stansfield, Gray; Kyogo<\/p>\n

Would you be happy with that XI? Have your say HERE<\/a>Get the latest Blues headlines sent straight to your phone<\/p>\n

BirminghamLive has its very own Birmingham City<\/a> WhatsApp community to deliver the latest headlines straight to your phone. Just click this link<\/a> to receive daily Blues content and breaking news. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out any time you like. Click on the name at the top of your screen while in WhatsApp and click ‘Exit Group’. Read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham City have aleready added German defender Phil Neumann to their squad and more new signings will follow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,1205,42707,748,8372,55206,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-208896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city-fc","10":"tag-birmingham-city-fc-transfer-news","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-chris-davies-football-coach","13":"tag-demarai-gray","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114735285817431804","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}