Birmingham City transfer latest featuring Kyogo Furuhashi, Tommy Doyle and experienced defender Craig Dawson
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09:56, 23 Jun 2025
Kyogo Furuhashi is of interest to Birmingham City
Kyogo Furuhashi is of interest to Birmingham City
The noise surrounding Kyogo Furuhashi and a transfer to Birmingham City increased over the weekend.
Japan international Kyogo could make a return to the United Kingdom six months after swapping Celtic for Rennes having failed to hit the ground running in France.
Kyogo failed to score in six Ligue 1 outings for Rennes after a goal-laden spell in Celtic which saw him net 85 times in 165 games.
BirminghamLive understands Blues are interested in bringing Kyogo to St Andrew’s to fill one of their attacking vacancies. Chris Davies’ main mission this summer is to add firepower to his side with at least three forward additions expected to arrive.
While Kyogo, 30, is older than the players Blues usually target, the striker is viewed as someone who could be hugely influential in the Championship and step up to the Premier League if the club's push for promotion is successful.
He would add to the Japanese contingent in Blues’ squad with Tomoki Iwata and Ayumu Yokoyama already in situ, although the latter isn’t expected to form part of Davies’ squad next season.
Blues are also interested in Japanese playmaker Kanya Fujimoto who will soon become a free agent when his contract at Gil Vicente expires.
But it was the name of another midfielder doing the Blues rounds at the weekend. Blues have been tentatively linked with Wolves midfielder Tommy Doyle, a 23-year-old who has appeared 50 times in the Premier League in the past two seasons.
Doyle has essentially been deemed surplus-to-requirements by current Wolves boss Vitor Pereira. In a brutal assassination of Doyle’s suitability to Wolves’ style in the Premier League, Pereira said: “Technically-speaking, he’s a very good player, but in my opinion he’s missing the physicality to face this league.
“To run 50 metres, to come back 50 metres and then go 50 metres again. We are not a team to have 80 per cent of possession, so he has problems. If we are a team that has the ball every time, doesn’t allow counter-attacks and keeps the ball to dominate the opponent, this is the team for him.
“But we need to understand that we face top teams, top players. We need to run a lot and he’s missing this physicality, especially when we play with two midfielders.
“With three midfielders, I believe he is a 10 with high quality. The last pass, shots, crosses – he has those skills.”
In a ball-playing team, which Blues are, Doyle is a six and Davies is expected to add one to his team this summer. However, any newcomer would have to accept that Iwata and Paik Seung-ho will start the season as Davies' first choices.
Doyle’s former Wolves team-mate, Craig Dawson, has also been linked with Blues.
The 35-year-old played alongside Blues’ director of football Craig Gardner at West Bromwich Albion so it’s easy to join the dots on this one.
Blues are in need of another centre-back and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them sign a more experienced option who isn’t expecting to play all the time. Grant Hanley performed that role very well in League One last season.
Having said that, Dawson might want to play more regularly and minutes would be attainable at Derby County and Wrexham, with whom he has also been connected.
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