Kyogo's Birmingham Gamble Turns Sour: Exit Talk Intensifies

When Birmingham City landed Kyogo in the summer of 2025, it felt like a statement. A forward who had rattled in 85 goals in 165 games for Celtic, lit up Champions League nights, and terrorised Scottish Premiership defences was dropping into the Championship. On paper, it looked like a mismatch. The division would suit his sharp movement, his relentless pressing, his eye for goal.

It was supposed to be a coup. It has become a conundrum.

The plan was simple enough. Pair Kyogo with Jay Stansfield, let the Japanese striker’s experience and instincts dovetail with the younger forward’s energy, and watch St Andrew’s fall in love with a new partnership. Instead, the chemistry never sparked. The goals never flowed. The belief drained away almost as quickly as it had arrived.

Kyogo’s Birmingham story never really got off the ground. At 31, he was expected to hit the ground running; instead, he stumbled. The early weeks were littered with half-chances and near-misses, the kind of moments that used to end with him wheeling away in celebration in Glasgow. At Birmingham, they ended with frustration, heads in hands, and a striker searching for something he used to do almost by instinct.

One league goal. That’s all he managed before a long-standing shoulder problem finally forced him under the knife and brought his season to a premature halt. No rhythm, no run of form, no opportunity to reset. Just a flat line where there was supposed to be a surge.

For former Birmingham favourite Clinton Morrison, the collapse in form remains baffling.

“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 told GOAL, speaking in association with Freebets.com.

The confusion is genuine. This was not a punt on potential. This was a proven finisher, suddenly looking anything but.

Morrison insists the chances were there.

“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.”

That word again: confidence. The invisible currency that can turn a routine finish into a snatched swipe. In those first few games, when a new signing can set the tone for everything that follows, Kyogo blinked.

“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,” Morrison added.

The margins at the top end of the pitch are brutal. One early hot streak and the narrative is of a bargain, a masterstroke, a club transformed by its recruitment. Miss those early sitters and the story turns, slowly at first, then with gathering pace. Questions creep in. Then criticism. Then talk of an exit.

That is where Birmingham find themselves now. Do they cut their losses or double down?

“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,” Morrison admitted. “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’.”

It’s the dilemma at the heart of modern recruitment. The numbers from Scotland say one thing. The reality in England has screamed another. Kyogo proved he could score heavily in the Scottish Premiership. The Championship has not yet seen that version of him.

“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.”

Morrison is not alone in his surprise. EFL pundit Don Goodman, who watched Kyogo closely during those early months, saw a striker slowly unravelling under the weight of expectation and missed chances.

“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 when assessing a deal that promised so much and has delivered so little.

The description is stark. So is his verdict on the transfer itself.

“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.”

Energetic. Quick. Intelligent movement. All the traits that made Kyogo such a menace north of the border remained. What vanished was the finish. The calmness. The certainty in front of goal that once made him one of the most feared forwards in Scotland.

Now Birmingham must decide whether that player is still in there, waiting to be coaxed back once the shoulder heals and the mind clears, or whether this was a gamble that simply never belonged in the Championship’s unforgiving grind.

Do they cash out now, or bet that the second season brings the version of Kyogo they thought they were signing in the first place?