The transfer window never truly closes does it?
I suppose with the signing of Bernard Sun after the window shut, I shouldn’t really be surprised if Birmingham do end up making another free-agent signing, although I think this is one that they should stay away from.
Shinji Okazaki is now a free agent having been released by his club Malaga yesterday. And as evidenced here, as soon as the news spread that he was on the market, there were a number of Birmingham City fans who demanded that the club sign him.
However, there are two things that slightly worry me about fans wanting this move to happen, and it’s a pretty big one. The Sun are reporting that the reason he had his contract terminated was that his wages were too high.
Now given that Birmingham are less than six months removed from being dealt a hefty punishment for breaking Financial Fair Play rules, I don’t think that we can really afford (pun not intended) to go down the road of getting caught in a similar situation with Okazaki. Whilst we don’t know exactly what those wages are, if they were enough to make a second-tier Spanish side think twice about signing him, what chance to we have of being able to afford him?
Plus when you look at his stats, his goal return isn’t really all that impressive. 19 goals in 137 appearances in English football, that works out at a goal every 7.21 games. Extrapolate that over a season, or rather half a season because we won’t be allowed to sign him until January, and you’re only getting three goals out of him. Whilst he may be fondly remembered and ‘revered’ as part of the side that won the title back in 2015/16, it’s fair to say that his contribution wasn’t the greatest in terms of volume.
But, who knows. We’ve been surprised with some of the moves the club have made this summer, so I’m not officially ruling anything out.
