It had to happen, in all truth.
Moving on Kyogo Furuhashi was the best outcome for both Blues and the player, even if the club has taken a financial hit.
Sometimes, players just don’t fit or work out. It doesn’t happen for them.
The Japanese striker arrived to much fanfare last summer after a £4 million move from Rennes. He’s now in the MLS, a transfer to LA Galaxy concluded, for a fee believed in excess of £1 million.
In Kyogo’s first interview after joining he was asked what would be bring to Blues. With a smile came a simple, straight answer: ‘goals’.
Well, as we now know, that sadly wasn’t the case.
One Championship goal from 1,007 minutes action in 28 appearances. Goals in the League Cup and FA Cup. A stack of wince-inducing misses.
It seemed everyone got carried away with the version of Kyogo who ripped it up in Scotland at Celtic, the scorer of 85 goals in 165 appearances.
But after his £10 million move to Rennes in January 2025, things went south – he lost his place, just one start, no goals – and he was unable to revitalise himself at St. Andrew’s. Maybe more notice should have been taken of his spell in France and the fact that he was managing a shoulder issue . . ?
It started encouragingly in the first match, against Ipswich Town. He buzzed around, full of scurrying energy. He had a lobbed goal unfortunately disallowed for a innocuous foul, and it was his loft over the ‘keeper that rebounded off the post for Jay Stansfield to score in the second-half.
He opened his Blues account in the League Cup a few days later, a literal couldn’t-miss-that-if-you-tried from a yard, courtesy of Demarai Gray’s set-up.
Then it got all rather messy.
Kyogo’s supporters – of which there still seem many (more of that later) – wanted and willed him to succeed. And he is a likeable, humble person, the kind you do pull for.
It was often pointed out that Blues didn’t play to his strengths – balls slid through, penalty box player etc – and there was a degree of truth in that. But only a degree, as Blues made plenty of 18-yard area entries and passes/crosses if not enough direct transition attacks that may have suited him.
When Kyogo was fed in dangerous areas his finishing was at best strangely awkward-looking, at worse like a novice.
He missed 12 big chances in the Championship and had a shot conversion rate of just three per cent.
And the eye test, as mentioned above, told you these were not difficult opportunities. He missed a header at point-blank range, he went through one on one and prodded wide with a toe-end when trying to dink the ‘keeper. He made a Furuhashi of things, you could say.
When he skied an open goal from six yards at Southampton in December, hurriedly half-volleying over after Jack Robinson’s header rebounded back off the woodwork, the reaction of his teammates around him was telling: there was no incredulity as such, instead they quickly turned to get back in position for the goal kick.
By this stage, there was a resigned expectation of Kyogo’s profligacy. In training he would miss the target, too.
Chris Davies made encouraging comments when Kyogo’s travails began. He’s a proven scorer, it will turn. That kind of stuff. But even he ran out of patience and bluntly said the 31-year-old had to deliver what he was brought in to do.
Davies couldn’t be blamed for not selecting him as a regular starter. There were better combinations and Kyogo simply hadn’t merited it as the season went on.
One of the most remarkable aspects of Kyogo’s spell at Blues was the patience fans showed him.
Scott Hogan, a more productive Blues striker, was viewed as the anti-Christ by some, whereas Kyogo was some kind of halo-ringed deity in comparison.
Marvin Ducksch, for all his foibles, was far more instrumental last season but perceived differently, too.
It became pantomime, in fact, when fans somewhat ironically cheered long and loud and chanted Kyogo’s name after scoring in the warm-up in front of the Tilton Road End at Easter.
This brings me to another point I have always felt: you don’t necessarily have to be a good player to be ‘popular’, but rather have a catchy chant that the masses can join in with – altogether now: ‘Kyogo, Kyogo, Kyogo’.
There comes a time when you have to accept the evidence in front of you, as painful as it is, and move on.
Blues dropped a clanger with Kyogo and likeable chap or not, had to cut their losses and now consider alternatives.
