Birmingham City want Joel Piroe - 2 Blues players won't like it | OneFootball

Blues have been heavily linked with a move for the Leeds United forward

Birmingham City's transfer activity throughout Chris Davies' two-year tenure as manager has raised plenty of eyebrows, and that could, once again, prove to be the case throughout the upcoming summer.

Shortly after his appointment at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park in June 2024, the 41-year-old oversaw a record transfer spend by the club's, and League One's overall standards as ownership group, Knighthead Capital Management, made their intentions firmly clear.

After romping to the third tier title, Blues conducted two further squad reshuffles upon their return to the Championship 12 months ago, although not all of their business proved to be particularly successful.

Having previously parted with a club-record fee on Jay Stansfield, a multitude of other big-money transfers were completed, such as the deals which brought Kyogo Furuhashi, Carlos Vicente and August Priske, to the West Midlands outfit in particular.

Despite their spending power, Birmingham were very rarely, if at all, in the promotion conversation, with their differing fortunes at home and away from B9 resulting in a 10th-placed finish on 64 points.

However, more will, undoubtedly, be expected of Davies' men next season, particularly with an expansion of the play-offs from four to six teams, on top of the two sides who will achieve automatic promotion to the Premier League.

And, with the summer window looming large, Blues have already been linked with a move for Joel Piroe, who has fallen out of favour at Leeds United, with the likes of Middlesbrough, Stoke City and Rangers also keen on the previous second tier hotshot.

After excelling with Swansea City, United parted with a £13m fee to lure him to Elland Road, with his overall Championship record reading 73 goals in 179 games.

However, Football League World have looked at two pre-existing members of Birmingham's squad who may not like such rumours.

Kyogo Furuhashi

As previously mentioned, Kyogo was one of many marquee signings made by Birmingham after they returned to the Championship at the first time of asking.

The 31-year-old forward had previously developed a reputation for being a potent goal-getter with Scottish Premiership giants, Celtic, finding the back of the net 85 times in 165 appearances at Parkhead.

Although form would dip in the final months of that particular spell, it was enough for Stade Rennais to invest £10m into his services, but the 23-time Japanese international wasn't unable to justify that price tag, and the same fate has occurred at St. Andrew's so far.

In 31 appearances across all competitions, Kyogo only mustered three goals, with his only league strike coming against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on January 20th.

The striker's struggles even led to suggestions of a swift exit, although reports of a £40,000 weekly wage proved a hindrance to his former club, Celtic, in particular.

Yet whilst Davies would hope Furuhashi can put such misfortune behind him next term once he returns from a shoulder injury which required surgery, he could soon fall back down the pecking order if a player of Piroe's calibre, with a proven Championship goalscoring record, arrived.

Kanya Fujimoto

Another summer addition whose move hasn't worked out in any form is Kanya Fujimoto, who was signed on a three-year deal after exiting Portuguese top-flight side, Gil Vicente, last summer.

Before moving to St. Andrew's, there were some concerns over the fitness levels of the 26-year-old, and whilst an initial recovery on that front deep into pre-season limited his gametime in the campaign's early weeks, he hasn't been given the levels of gametime which would have been envisaged at the time of his move.

Despite making eight appearances in all competitions, none of those came from the starting lineup, and he was also reduced to just 45 minutes of Championship action all season.

That is despite the fact that, in April, Davies admitted he would plan to use Fujimoto more as the campaign drew to a close, whilst in reality, he made the bench three times from Easter Monday onwards but didn't make it onto the pitch.

As such, the arrival of Piroe could also hint at a new body to feature in the 'number 10' position, which the Suriname international did quite regularly during Daniel Farke's first season in LS11 back in 2023/24.