Nine new faces have already entered the Birmingham City camp this summer, with that number surely set to increase before September’s looming deadline.
It has gone somewhat quiet on the Blues transfer front after signings galore joined the building at breakneck speed, but another striker must surely be on Chris Davies’ shopping list now that Alfie May has officially sealed a move away to Huddersfield Town.
May would go on to fire home a devastating 17 goals for the Blues across 57 appearances, but the leap up to the Championship was presumably judged to be too much for the 32-year-old to adjust to.
Instead, Birmingham have managed to recuperate £1.2m by selling him on, with that money set to be put to good use in chasing after an immediate replacement.
The blow of May moving on has also been softened by Kyogo Furuhashi’s £10m arrival on the scene, which will also undoubtedly improve Birmingham’s firepower heading into the Championship.
Why Kyogo should be a big success at Birmingham
When looking at Kyogo’s well-travelled career to date, he has more hits on his resume than notable blunders.
In Japan, for both Vissel Kobe and FC Gifu – before embarking on a transformative Celtic move – Kyogo would show early signs of his blistering edge in front of goal, with a promising 66 strikes tallied up from 182 clashes.
That sturdy number would be amazingly eclipsed in Glasgow when leading the line for Celtic, with a whopping 85 strikes coming his way from 165 total contests.
He did then fall victim to a zero-goal stint at Rennes, but he will hope he can write that short stay off in France as a fluke on his otherwise sparkling CV.
More strikers entering the Blues camp will hopefully take the pressure off Kyogo’s shoulders to be Birmingham’s sole leading man, with these fresh arrivals to Davies’ side also potentially getting even more out of the Japanese gem.
One potential new purchase, in particular, has shown he is content with being an assist king, as much as he enjoys chipping in with a strike or two of his own.
Extraordinary Blues target could be a dream for Kyogo
May will be mainly remembered for his 17-goal heroics last season, but he also provided a healthy nine assists for the attacking bodies around him.
New Blues target Marvin Ducksch should be able to come in and fill this void effectively when looking at his standout Werder Bremen numbers, with Football League World reporting that Davies and Co. are close to landing the well-rounded German as an attacker who could fire them up to the Premier League.
24/25
36
9
11
23/24
34
13
10
22/23
35
12
9
21/22
29
20
10
Whilst it’s clear from glancing at the table above that Ducksch shares Kyogo’s clinical nature with an explosive 54 strikes picked up across his last four campaigns for Bremen, he also has the added plus of being a creative machine on his side, with an impressive 40 assists next to his name.
Last season, in particular, saw the Dortmund-born attacker’s goalscoring exploits take a backseat for his unselfish nature to come to the forefront.
He produced 11 assists next to his nine goals, with his FBref numbers over the last year also seeing him come away with a noticeable 3.20 progressive passes on average per clash, enough to rank him in the top 7% of positionally similar players in Europe’s top five leagues.
Being this consistent creative spark for Bremen has even resulted in Ducksch being called up to the Germany national side, on top of the 31-year-old being hailed as “extraordinary” by teammate Mitchell Weiser for what he can provide.
All of this will be music to the ears of a poacher-like presence such as Kyogo, who has been donned as “exceptional” himself in the past for his finishing ability under pressure by ex-Hoops comrade Joe Hart.
The struggle here might well come in getting both the German and the £10m attacker in the same XI, owing to Davies’ regular 4-2-3-1 set-up, but this is a selection headache Davies won’t be dreading, as his attacking personnel is strengthened regardless.
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