Birmingham City have a host of decisions to make when it comes to existing personnel, as they prepare for the beginning of the Championship season having claimed the League One title with still six matches left to play of their remaining campaign.
One area which is likely to come under the microscope as far as recruitment goes is in the wide areas; Blues have been pretty luckless with their wingers this term. While Keshi Anderson has remained a key fixture in the side and contributed a number of goals throughout the season, others haven’t had the desired impact.
After the likes of Koji Miyoshi and Siriki Dembele were both allowed to leave the club last summer, successors Scott Wright and Emil Hansson have both struggled with injuries right throughout their first campaigns at St Andrew’s. Another summer signing was young Japanese winger Ayumu Yokoyama.
Yokoyama is still only 22, but he signed for Blues from Sagan Tosu last summer and signed a three-year contract upon arrival. He made 10 appearances in League One in the first half of last season, but he didn’t start once and his only starts came in the EFL Trophy and in the FA Cup.
There were promising moments; Yokoyama struck a brace in the 7-1 win over Fulham under 21s, and he bagged again in the round of 16 EFL Trophy tie victory over Swindon Town. Yokoyama also struck in the FA Cup against Lincoln City to tee up the tie with Newcastle United.
By the end of the January transfer window, though, Yokoyama was loaned to Belgian outfit Jong Genk, who are the B team of Pro League side Genk; he has made eight appearances thus far and five of those have been starts, although collectively Jong Genk have struggled badly with their form.
To date, they’ve lost seven of Yokoyama’s eight games played, and only managed a draw in the other one of those fixtures. Yokoyama did, though, make a personal breakthrough on Sunday when he netted his first goal for the club, in a 3-1 loss to RFC Luttich.
With Jong Genk trailing 3-0, teammate Thomas Claes missed a penalty, but Yokoyama followed up with some smart control to take the rebound in his stride and lift the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper who had just made the save from the initial spot-kick.
Yokoyama is out of sight, out of mind for now but Blues will have another decision to make on the winger’s immediate future once the summer comes around – whether to reintegrate him into the side or decide whether another move away would instead be beneficial.
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