‘Hasn't been anywhere near it’ - Ex-Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi poses transfer conundrum for Tom Brady & Birmingham after becoming a £10m flop

Having registered 85 goals through 165 appearances for Scottish Premiership giants Celtic, Kyogo was considered to be quite the coup for Championship new boys Birmingham during the summer of 2025.

The expectation was, given his track record and Champions League experience, that the hard-working frontman would quickly master the second tier of English football and form a deadly partnership with Jay Stansfield at St Andrew’s.

Unfortunately for all concerned, that never happened. The 31-year-old forward stumbled out of the blocks, preventing early momentum and confidence from being established. He never really recovered from there - netting just one league goal - and saw his season brought to a premature conclusion when undergoing surgery on a long-standing shoulder problem.

Quizzed on what has gone wrong for Kyogo, as he generates exit talk at Birmingham, former Blues star Morrison - speaking exclusively to GOAL in association with Freebets.com - said: “I can't believe why it's not working because 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. His work rate's fantastic but you've got to have a bit more than work rate when you're a number nine. You need to score goals and he was getting opportunities and he was just rushing at them.

“I think if he had started there in his first few games and started scoring a lot of goals as a centre-forward, his confidence would have just gone back through the roof and he would have scored a lot of goals, but he hasn't been anywhere near it.

“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. 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’.

“He scored goals in the Scottish Premiership, so it's a difficult one. 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.”

EFL player-turned-pundit Don Goodman, who has seen plenty of Kyogo, previously told GOAL when he was asked about a dream deal for Birmingham that quickly turned into a nightmare: “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.

“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.”

Form and fitness issues have cost Kyogo dear. He was unable to help Birmingham build consistency across the 2025-26 campaign, leading to them finishing in 10th place - nine points adrift of the play-off places.

With his last appearance coming on March 21, and having failed to start a game since mid-January, Kyogo’s struggles at club level - alongside a visit to the operating table - have resulted in him missing out on a place in the Japan squad that will be heading to North America for the 2026 World Cup.