£10m Birmingham City transfer must still leave Tom Wagner scratching his head | OneFootball

Kyogo Furuhashi's gametime could further diminish at St. Andrew's

Birmingham City's transfer business, once again, proved to be rather eye-catching in the winter window as they plot a route towards the Championship play-off places.

In truth, the month of January and Deadline Day couldn't have panned out much better for Blues when it came to the dealings they were able to finalise, both in terms of incomings and outgoings.

The club's ambition, once again, proved key on the incomings front, with the duo of Carlos Vicente and August Priske opting to move to St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park over pre-established European giants such as Ajax, Besiktas and LOSC Lille respectively, due to the 'project' which majority owner, Tom Wagner, has often referenced in the mainstream media.

The aforementioned duo were two of six new signings recruited byChris Davies between an alarming 3-0 defeat at the hands of Watford on New Year's Day and after last weekend's controlled 2-0 away success over Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium - a victory which made it six matches unbeaten for Birmingham across their recent Championship and FA Cup encounters.

In order to facilitate the six new arrivals, who have helped Davies address a handful of 'problem' areas within his squad in relation to depth and quality, the Blues boss parted ways with over 10 'fringe players' including Scotland international forward, Lyndon Dykes, whose switch to Charlton Athletic came days before Priske's switch from Djurgardens IF was confirmed.

However, the acquisition of the Danish youth international striker, on top of his minutes as a substitute thus far, will potentially leave Wagner scratching his head once more over the eight-figure outlay which the West Midlands side parted with to sign Kyogo Furuhashi, who was also the subject of recent transfer speculation.

It has been well-documented that the past 13 months couldn't have gone much worse for Furuhashi on an individual level, with the Japanese forward continuing to look a shadow of his former self in front of goal, despite the fact he continues to earn praise for his work-rate.

The 23-time international cost Birmingham a reported £10m from Stade Rennais of Ligue 1 in the summer on a three-year contract, with the initial hope being that he could replicate the form he was able to demonstrate at Scottish Premiership giants, Celtic, where his tally of 85 goals in just 165 games sees him remain a cult figure at Parkhead.

Remarkably, such a fee isn't enough for Kyogo to go down as Blues' record fee, with that honour going to Jay Stansfield, of course. But, it is still a significant sum of money for a Championship side to be investing in any player, meaning the deal needed to be worth every single penny.

His first two games in royal blue gave hope that that would be the case, as he saw a goal ruled out on the opening night of the season against Ipswich Town, before slotting home his first for Blues just four days later in the EFL Cup against Sheffield United.

However, the striker has since been seen snatching at a plethora of gilt-edged chances, as well as falling down the pecking order behind Marvin Ducksch, who has scored nine times since his switch from Werder Bremen.

The 31-year-old then had to wait five months for his next goal to come at the start of January in the FA Cup against Cambridge United of League Two, before scoring his maiden Championship goal 10 days later against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.

In a bid to continue backing the forward, Kyogo was serenaded by the travelling Bluenoses after both games. However, he has played just nine of the following 180 minutes, with Priske seemingly already above him in Davies' new-look pecking order.

As previously mentioned, Kyogo's future was certainly plunged into doubt in the window amid links to both Celtic and Swansea City.

However, with it being reported that the striker collects a weekly wage of £40,000 per week - which some would argue is yet to be justified - it could prove extremely tough for Birmingham to offload the forward in the future.

The chances of also breaking even on the aforementioned fee are extremely slim, unless Furuhashi is able to turn a corner sooner rather than later, largely due to his age and concerning form within the past year.

As such, it could prove to be Wagner's most high-profile transfer error since he took over as owner in July 2023.