Underestimate Birmingham City at your own peril next season.
Already, the ultra-ambitious Blues have welcomed in seven new faces to the St. Andrew’s camp with more surely expected as they go about continuing to construct a side ready to compete, and potentially soar, at Championship level.
The most high-profile signing of Birmingham’s hectic summer so far has come in the form of £10m attacker Kyogo Furuhashi leaving Rennes behind for pastures new in the West Midlands, with lots expected of the Japanese forward in his fresh second-tier surroundings.
Why Kyogo Furuhashi is an exciting signing
Whilst he has never got going in France with zero goals or assists next to his name from six Rennes appearances, Birmingham will feel they’ve made a worthwhile investment in the 30-year-old striker based on his blistering output at Celtic alone.
From 165 clashes donning the famous green and white jersey, Kyogo would tally up a stunning 85 strikes in total, alongside also chipping in with a healthy 19 assists for his troubles.
Everyone at St. Andrew’s will be praying he can get back to the clinical best he managed in Scotland when now plying his trade in nearby England, with his former Hoops manager Ange Postecoglou once even labelling the four-time Scottish Premiership winner as “outstanding” for his constant magic in Glasgow.
Kyogo will surely give the likes of Jay Stansfield and Alfie May a run for their money in the forward areas, but another exciting signing up top would be seen as even more of a coup than the 23-time Japan international’s arrival onto the scene.
Birmingham could sign an even bigger talent than Kyogo
Birmingham fans might well feel let down by the millions splashed out on Kyogo if he doesn’t instantly hit the ground running, fearful that another Rennes crisis of confidence has enveloped him.
Whilst it could take time for Kyogo to warm up to the challenges of the Championship, Danny Ings would surely feel instantly more comfortable dropping back down to the EFL, after finding his recent Premier League stints to be full of injuries.
As per a report earlier this summer from journalist Graeme Bailey, Birmingham have considered a move for Ings, knowing full well what he’s capable of in front of goal when injuries aren’t dominating his playing time.
All this talk might well have died down now – with Bailey further revealing that Wrexham and Burnley were even eyeing up the goalscoring veteran – but if Birmingham want another top-quality attacker to add to their glittering striker options, and a star who is an even bigger talent than Furuhashi for free, this is a move they should try to get back into motion.
After all, it’s clear from the table above – unlike Kyogo, who fired blanks in Ligue 1 – that Ings has shown off his goalscoring prowess all across his career, even when issues have arisen, with a hefty 120 career goals next to his name from 406 clashes. It was only four years ago that Aston Villa forked out £30m for his services.
43 of those strikes would come about on the books of Burnley, with the three-time England international chomping at the bit to return to the Championship where he first honed his potent craft, as seen in him bagging a healthy 21 strikes during the 2013/14 season to seal promotion for the Clarets.
From then on, it’s been a career mainly played at the pinnacle of English football, with Ings dropping back down to the Championship with Birmingham seen as a statement of intent on Davies and Co’s end of where they want to be in the very near future.
Once labelled as “clinical” by football journalist Leanne Prescott, Ings would be raring to go donning Birmingham blue if a move was sealed, with the experienced attacker perhaps pipping Kyogo to a starting spot in the process.
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