How Brendan Rodgers affected £10m Birmingham City transfer agreement | OneFootball

The Celtic boss has a strong connection with Chris Davies.

Brendan Rodgers played a key role in Birmingham City's move to sign Kyogo Furuhashi, it has been revealed.

Blues' marquee signing of the summer so far - there's plenty of scope for that to change with how Birmingham have operated in the transfer market recently - is their new Japanese forward.

Rennes sold the 30-year-old to City for just over £10 million earlier in the summer. He has played a couple of pre-season games so far, both of which Birmingham lost, but for that price you would expect him to be a key part of Chris Davies' plans.

Kyogo got his move to France off the back of an outstanding tenure with Celtic, where his new boss worked as an assistant under Rodgers for two-and-a-half seasons. He scored at a rate of roughly a goal every other game across 165 appearances for the club, but struggled to find his feet after crossing the channel.

£10m Birmingham acquisition put to them by Brendan Rodgers

It has been revealed by The Telegraph that Rodgers recommended to Davies and Birmingham that they should sign Kyogo, following his duff spell with Rennes. They beat Premier League teams to his signature too, as the Daily Mail reported.

Signing the likes of the Japanese attacker, as well as former youth team product Demarai Gray and young Brighton & Hove Albion defender Eiran Cashin really signal the club's intent that they aren't just happy to be back in the second tier.

The Premier League is their aspiration, and there is genuine belief at St Andrew's that they can win automatic promotion this season, with in-house data and analytics supporting their top-two goals, as per The Telegraph.

Their chairman, Tom Wagner, has always been clear about his goal to take the club back to the top flight, but he doesn't want people to get too ahead of themselves. "Now we’re back in the Championship we will be highly competitive on a revenue basis, as compared to any other team," the American businessman told the national publication.

"We’re always planning for the future and while it would be nice to be promoted in our 150th anniversary year it’s even more important to remember that it’s always about the next match."

Birmingham will be one of the elite teams in the Championship next season

It's hard to see a world in which Birmingham aren't challenging for back-to-back promotions next season. The talent in their squad is serious, especially compared to the last team to go from League One to the Premier League in the shortest time possible: Ipswich Town.

Breaking records and smashing expectations is nothing new to Davies and his playing staff. They broke the EFL's all-time points tally last season by racking up 111 in the third tier. They were heavily favoured to win the division, but they barely got out of third gear to be able to get to that point.

Now, with signings like Kyogo, Gray and Cashin, they should only get better, which is a scary prospect for the other promotion contenders.