Birmingham City are reported to have joined Crystal Palace in the race to sign the impressive AFCON winger, who could be an immediate addition to Furuhashi Kogo.
Chris Davies: ‘Hard to accept’ against QPR
Birmingham won’t have a more disappointing night when they face Queens Park Rangers on Tuesday. The Blues equalized in the 93rd minute through Patrick Roberts, but Kieran Morgan brutally snatched all three points three minutes later.
Chris Davis admitted the loss was “hard to take” when he reflected at full-time, telling reporters: “It was a very difficult defeat. You would think we would come back at 1-1 and grab a point with a minute left, but that wasn’t the case.
“It would have been a reasonable start for us in the first half to work towards half-time and go 0-0 down, but we gave ourselves the lead again and we had a big job on our hands.
“We have a lot of work to do. In the second half we definitely moved forward and kept pushing. I was really happy to score that goal, and at the end it was a shot that went through a lot of bodies and was sucked into the goal.”
“At half-time I wasn’t happy with the performance. I thought what we could do was way below par. I thought we were making a simple game look harder than it needed to be.”
With this loss, the Blues have fallen to 11th place, three points behind sixth-placed Hull City. A January move for a talented player like Philippe Otele should be a priority for Birmingham if they hope to qualify for the Championship play-offs before May rolls around.
Birmingham enter race to sign Philippe Otele
According to GiveMeSport’s Ben Jacobs, Birmingham are currently in the race to sign Otele, competing with Premier League side Crystal Palace to sign the winger in 2026.
The 26-year-old has been included in Nigeria’s reserve squad for the Africa Cup of Nations and could be included in Eric Schell’s final squad before taking part in the competition.
Ahead of the tournament, Otele has already been in good form in Basel, Switzerland, scoring eight goals and providing three assists in 26 games this season. In contrast, Kyogo has had a surprisingly difficult time since arriving in Birmingham.
Many expected the former Celtic player to be included in this season’s signings, but he is yet to score a single Championship goal and has recently made glaring mistakes with the goal wide open. The arrival of summer was like a nightmare. Otere’s transfer may also result in Kyogo losing his place.
The winger has had many fans throughout his career, with former CFR Cluj manager Adrian Mutu, who worked with Otele, telling reporters last year: “He has great physicality, speed and technical skills. He can still work on his finishing, but I’m not surprised at all by the interest.”
