Kanya Fujimoto & £500k man should eye Birmingham City exits before January ends | OneFootball

FLW lists two Blues player who will be eyeing late exits from St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park.

Despite Chris Davies being under pressure in recent weeks, his Birmingham City side have managed to turn results around.

Davies’ future was called into question due to a recent poor run of form, with the West Midlands outfit failing to win any of their previous five second-tier matches before beating table-toppers Coventry City in the opening week of January.

Since then, Blues have advanced into the fourth round of the FA Cup after dispatching Cambridge United, earned a 1-1 draw away at Swansea City and finally put their hoo-doo on the road to an end by securing an away league victory for the first time in three months, beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-0.

Because of their upturn in form, Birmingham are now well-positioned to be in the top six conversation, with optimism building that they can push into the play-off picture come May.

And while incomings will be what Blues supporters care about the most to help push them up the standings, departures are also necessary for senior figures suffering from a lack of game-time, with this the final opportunity for players to play regularly elsewhere for the remainder of the campaign.

With this in mind, FLW has listed two Birmingham City players who will be eager to leave the club before the 2nd February deadline.

Kanya Fujimoto

First up is Kanya Fujimoto, who, despite linking up in the West Midlands last summer, will be desperate to depart the club and play his football elsewhere for the remainder of what has been a dismal season so far for the Japanese midfielder.

The 26-year-old has only played 61 minutes of football all season, while his 14-minute substitute appearance against Cambridge United in the FA Cup third round spoke volumes about what his future looks like under Chris Davies.

Meanwhile, just two minutes of game-time in the second-tier is a diabolical figure for an outfield first-team player, particularly someone who is a recent addition to the club, so he must be chomping at the bit to get away and push his career on an upwards trajectory.

With Davies having no plans to utilise him, you have to feel the club should consider a permanent exit already, should the right offer come along, but if it doesn’t, then a loan deal should be the minimum they sanction in order for him to move away and be a valued member of another squad.

This was echoed by FLW’s Birmingham City fan pundit, who himself called for Fujimoto to be a priority sale for the club before the 2nd February deadline.

Marc Leonard

Another Birmingham City outcast who will be hopeful of reviving his career elsewhere is Marc Leonard, who continues to be touted for a move away in January.

Leonard has found regular minutes extremely hard to come by since joining Blues in the summer of 2024, during Davies’ first transfer window as boss.

The 24-year-old penned a four-year contract in the Second City after Blues struck a £500,000 agreement with Premier League outfit Brighton, but it seems as though it could be a relatively short stay for the midfielder.

Leonard has started just 19 of the 50 league games he’s been available for, often being utilised as a back-up to both Tomoki Iwata and Paik Seung-ho in League One, while added competition and depth in the Championship has pushed him further down the pecking order.

Leonard has also been omitted from Davies’ last four matchday squads in all competitions, with that signalling itself that he is surplus to requirements.

Expectedly, interest has emerged for Leonard’s signature at the start of 2026, with Belgian Pro League side Sint-Truiden VV recording an interest, while second-tier rivals Queens Park Rangers were also said to be in the race along with Norwich City and Sheffield United, although it later emerged that he is not on the R’s list of targets.