Kyogo’s Birmingham Gamble: A Disappointing Season
When Birmingham City prised Kyogo Furuhashi away from Celtic in the summer of 2025, it felt like a statement. Here was a forward with 85 goals in 165 games for the Glasgow giants, a proven finisher with Champions League minutes in his legs, suddenly dropping into the Championship. For a newly promoted side, it looked bold. It looked clever. It looked like a coup.
On paper, the script wrote itself. Kyogo’s sharp movement and tireless pressing dovetailing with Jay Stansfield’s energy at St Andrew’s. A front two that would harass defences, punish mistakes, drag Birmingham clear of trouble and maybe even flirt with the top half.
The reality never came close.
The 31-year-old never got out of first gear. He stumbled through the opening weeks, the early spark that strikers crave refusing to catch. No burst of form. No scruffy tap-in to get him going. Just a growing sense that something wasn’t right.
One league goal. That was it, before a long-standing shoulder problem finally forced him under the knife and out of the season.
For a player whose Celtic career was built on ruthless efficiency, it has been a jarring collapse in output.
“I can't believe why it's not working,” admitted former Birmingham favourite Clinton Morrison, speaking to GOAL in association with Freebets.com. “At Celtic his movement and the chances and the goals he was scoring were fantastic.
“He was getting the chances at Birmingham City but just wasn't putting them in, and that can happen. That's just a player short on confidence and it hasn't really worked out.”
The chances were there. That is what will sting most inside the club. This was not a forward starved of service or marooned in a system that didn’t suit him. He was still making the runs, still finding pockets of space, still working defenders.
His work rate, Morrison insists, never dipped.
“His work rate's fantastic but you've got to have a bit more than work rate when you're a number nine,” he said. “You need to score goals and he was getting opportunities and he was just rushing at them.”
The pressure finally told in those first six to eight games. Every miss added weight. Every snatched effort chipped away at the aura he had carried from Celtic.
EFL pundit Don Goodman, who watched the story unravel in real time, saw the confidence drain almost week by week.
“He started missing real gilt-edge chances in those first six, eight games and you could slowly but surely just see the confidence drain away from him,” Goodman told GOAL. “In terms of value for money, it's gone horribly wrong with regard to that particular transfer.
“And it's surprising, really. I like his movement. He's energetic, he's quick. But he didn't look like he could hit a barn door, if I'm honest with you, after a difficult start.”
That brutal assessment captures the mood. Birmingham did not sign Kyogo for honest running. They signed him for cold, hard numbers. Goals. Match-winners. Big moments.
Instead, they have been left with a bruised asset on a sizeable wage, and a decision to make.
Morrison believes the club now stand at a crossroads with their misfiring striker.
“That's a player they could move on because he's on big money and they try to see if they can get some money for him,” he said. “Or do they stick with him and say, ‘this season could be your season and we don't have to spend money because he should be scoring goals in the Championship’.”
This is where the dilemma bites. Kyogo has already shown he can thrive in a demanding environment. His record in the Scottish Premiership is not in doubt. The movement that shredded defences north of the border has not suddenly disappeared. The question is whether Birmingham believe that version of him can be rediscovered in England’s second tier.
“He scored goals in the Scottish Premiership, so it's a difficult one,” Morrison admitted. “I hope he stays and I hope next season is his season, but you never know at Birmingham City because they have money - they can bring in players and move players on.”
The club’s financial muscle changes the equation. They are not trapped. If they judge that the damage to Kyogo’s confidence is too deep, they can cut their losses, free up wages and go again in the market.
If they keep him, they are betting that this season was an aberration, that surgery and a full pre-season will reset a player who once looked lethal in green and white.
Kyogo arrived in the Championship as a marquee signing with a fearsome reputation. Now, as the summer approaches, Birmingham must decide whether he is a project worth salvaging or a gamble they can no longer afford.
