Fresh evidence shows Birmingham City should’ve struck Celtic or Swansea City transfer agreement | OneFootball

Birmingham City will regret not shipping Kyogo Furuhashi out to either Celtic or Swansea City in the winter transfer window.

Birmingham City have found themselves in a position where they can have a real tilt at the top six and the play-off places in the final few months of this Championship campaign.

The big spending and ambitious Blues blew teams out of the water, both on and off the pitch, in League One, and their spending continued into this season in the second-tier with the signing of Japan international striker Kyogo

Furuhashi for a fee believed to be in the region of £10 million from Ligue 1 outfit Stade Rennais.

However, that move was subject to some questions at the time, especially given his age and the sheer size of that fee, and it is one that has failed to work out throughout the campaign.

Furuhashi was a much-loved figure in Scotland when at Celtic and thrived under the management of Ange Postecoglou, but his struggle at Rennes in the second-half of last season has only continued into this season in the English second city, too.

We are only a couple of weeks out of the winter transfer window but it is increasingly clear that Birmingham failed by not managing to strike a deal to offload the 31-year-old attacker.

Despite scoring his first league goal for the club in a comfortable 2-0 defeat of Sheffield Wednesday in mid-January, Furuhashi has managed just to feature for just nine minutes since a 1-1 draw with Stoke City on Saturday, January 24.

Swansea City and Celtic were both linked with moves for the striker but neither managed to conclude a deal with City, and last season’s League One record breakers must surely already be regretting that.

There were always concerns about Kyogo Furuhashi at Birmingham City

Having started his career at Gifu in Japan before making a name for himself with Vissel Kobe, Kyogo Furuhashi became known to a wider European or British-based audience with his time at Celtic Park.

Furuhashi helped the Bhoys win four Scottish Premiership titles as well as two Scottish Cups and three Scottish League Cups. He was essential to their success, scoring 85 goals in 165 appearances for the Scottish giants across all competitions, even being linked with Manchester City in the summer of 2024.

Succeeding for Celtic in Scotland and then succeeding as a striker in a Manchester City side may well actually have quite similar attributes, with a ‘fox in the box’ style, able to poach at the front of a team dominating possession and creating plenty of chances.

That style of football may well have also even suited Birmingham in League One, and was perhaps what they were missing as, despite dominating the division with a record points tally of 111, they did actually only score 84 goals.

For context, that was a rate of 1.83 per game, whereas current League One leaders Cardiff City have notched at an ever so slightly higher rate despite currently being on course to get about 15 points fewer.

So, not that it was necessarily a problem but certainly identifying that improved efficiency for their dominance in the final third was something to be worked on, signing a player of Furuhashi’s skillset made a lot of sense.

However, it did perhaps underestimate the step up in quality that Birmingham would have when they attempted to impose their possession-dominant style back in the Championship.

Still having more of the ball on average with average possession of 54.4%, City enjoyed 66.9% of the ball last season and so, not only has that overall number gone down but they have also gone from having the most touches in the opposition box to eighth for that stat in the second-tier.

It is still a decent show of dominance and attacking intent but way down on their previous iteration from the 2024/25 season, at a lower level, and some way off what Furuhashi would have been used to at Celtic in the Scottish Premiership – and perhaps his struggles at Rennes in France’s top-flight, where he managed just six goalless appearances, should have already been a warning for Birmingham.

Kyogo Furuhashi is a big earner way down the pecking order at Birmingham

According to Capology, Furuhashi currently earns a weekly wage of £35,000 per week, which marks him out as their second highest earner behind winter window addition Carlos Vicente.

Having arrived for a fee believed to be in the region of £7 million from Basque outfit Deportivo Alaves in La Liga, the Spaniard is said to be earning £50,000 per week.

Aside from being the man to knock Furuhashi down the pecking order in terms of the financial packages offered by Birmingham to their players, he is also representative of a winter transfer window that saw the Blues make Furuhashi more or less surplus to requirements at St Andrew’s.

As well as Carlos Vicente, Birmingham also brought in Danish striker August Priske for a fee of £6 million from Djurgarden and Ibrahim Osman on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion in the final third.

Admittedly, both Osman and Carlos Vicente are more adept on the wing, albeit have played up-front, but they have continued to stock up already stacked attacking areas, with Marvin Ducksch having been brought in the summer from Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga and club-record signing Jay Stansfield still very much a guaranteed striker.

Birmingham’s big spending in recent seasons is eventually going to have to be balanced by a sale or two and big earners such as Furuhashi moved on – especially when they are so far down the pecking order and a failure to ship him out this winter may well frustrate the club already.