{"id":344542,"date":"2025-08-14T18:41:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T18:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/344542\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T18:41:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T18:41:14","slug":"birmingham-derby-and-qpr-await-decision-on-midfielder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/344542\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham, Derby And QPR Await Decision On Midfielder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\"> Molly Darlington\/Getty Images <\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"single-quote\" style=\"display: block; margin-block-start: 1em; margin-block-end: 1em; margin-inline-start: 0px; margin-inline-end: 0px; margin: 30px 0px; font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;\"><a style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/insidefutbol.com\/birmingham-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Birmingham City<\/a>, <a style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/insidefutbol.com\/derby-county\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Derby County<\/a> and QPR are all in the mix for Koki Saito, with a \u2018decision to be made\u2019 on where he will play this season, according to journalist <a style=\"font-size: 20px; color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mcgrathmike\/status\/1956017059726246192\">Mike McGrath<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Saito spent last season in the <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/insidefutbol.com\/championship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Championship<\/a> with QPR and made an impression by making five goal contributions in 39 matches.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese, who is on the books at Belgian side Lommel, is now a wanted man and is expected to be on the move again.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>QPR and Derby have both put offers to him, while Birmingham are also among the teams bidding to land him.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There is interest from the Netherlands in the shape of FC Twente and moving there would give Saito top flight football.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Birmingham_Chris_Davies4_620_ofg.webp.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It is suggested that the Japanese is rated at the \u00a35m mark; Lommel snapped him up from Yokohama FC in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now a decision is to be made on where Saito will be playing this season and all the interested clubs will be waiting to see if they can land him or not.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<tr>\nClub<br \/>\nYears<br \/>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd; padding: 12px; background-color: #fec368; color: black;\">Yokohama FC<\/td>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd; padding: 12px; background-color: #fec368; color: black;\">2018-2020<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd; padding: 12px; background-color: #fec368; color: black;\">Lommel<\/td>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd; padding: 12px; background-color: #fec368; color: black;\">2021-<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd; padding: 12px; background-color: #fec368; color: black;\">Sparta Rotterdam (loan)<\/td>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid #ddd; padding: 12px; background-color: #fec368; color: black;\">2022-2024<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid #dddddd; padding: 12px; background-color: #fec368; color: black;\">QPR (loan)<\/td>\n<td style=\"border: 2px solid #dddddd; padding: 12px; background-color: #fec368; color: black;\">2024-2025<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<p>Koki Saito\u2019s career history<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At St Andrew\u2019s, Saito would have the opportunity to team up with his countryman Kyogo Furuhashi, who Birmingham snapped up earlier this summer from French side Rennes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>QPR though are a club that Saito knows well and that may count for much when the midfielder comes to make his decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Derby_John_Eustace5_620_ofg.webp.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Derby meanwhile, under John Eustace, have shown ambition in the transfer market and believe that Saito fits the bill.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Rams have also been showing interest in Chelsea defender Alfie Gilchrist, <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/insidefutbol.com\/2025\/08\/08\/derby-county-get-now-willing-to-lower-boost-in-pursuit-of-target\/690815\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">with the Blues having reduced their asking price for the 21-year-old<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Saito has represented Japan at every age level up to the Under-23s and will want to establish himself as a senior international, especially heading into a World Cup year.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Molly Darlington\/Getty Images \u00a0 Birmingham City, Derby County and QPR are all in the mix for Koki Saito,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-344542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115028589862685029","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344542","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=344542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}