"Outstanding" - Birmingham City lauded for under the radar Celtic agreement | OneFootball

Tomoki Iwata has excelled for Birmingham City after his summer move

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

The summer of 2024 brought numerous changes to Birmingham City.

After a season of tumultuous fortunes resulted in relegation from the Championship, a fresh start in League One allowed the club to hit the reset button.

Chris Davies, appointed in June, was tasked with assembling a squad capable of achieving a first-time promotion back to the second tier, as well as being able to compete straight away, in a similar vein to Ipswich Town, who are in the midst of their first Premier League season for 22 years.

Given their reputation at this level, as well as the financial backing from Knighthead, Blues' transfer dealings well and truly came under the microscope this summer, reaching unprecedented levels of discourse as far as a side in the third tier is concerned.

With that in mind, Football League World quizzed our Birmingham fan pundit, Mike Gibbs, regarding one player the club have signed which has completely gone under the radar and turned out to be a fantastic piece of business.

Birmingham fan pundit references 2024 Celtic, Tomoki Iwata swoop

Despite the number of players over the course of Birmingham's history, Gibbs opted to select a recent recruit in the form of Japanese midfielder, Tomoki Iwata.

Under normal circumstances, a League One side acquiring a midfielder with three UEFA Champions League appearances and two SPFL titles to his name with Celtic, would be one of the major statements of the transfer window.

However, as Gibbs referenced, Iwata's arrival on Deadline Day was overshadowed by the club and division-record transfer which saw Jay Stansfield from Fulham in the dying minutes of the window.

Regardless, our fan pundit has been extremely impressed with the central midfielder's impact on the team since moving south of the border.

"I think the one (transfer to have gone under the radar) for me, is Iwata," Gibbs stated. "He's obviously just won League One Player of the Month as well!

"I think it was because he was a Deadline Day signing, and there was a lot of focus on the Jay Stansfield signing. I think he just came in under the radar," he continued.

"I don't know if I'm like a lot of other Blues fans as well, but I wasn't familiar with him.

"But, he's just been outstanding," Gibbs added. "Just absolute class in the middle of the park.

"One hell of a signing, and I think it's just down to the fact a lot of the focus was on Stansfield that day."

Tomoki Iwata has had an exceptional start to his Birmingham City career

In the opening month-and-a-half of his spell in B9, Iwata couldn't have asked for much more of a dream start, and neither could his manager too.

Since arriving, the four-time international has started in all five of Blues' subsequent League One games, and oozed class with his composure and eye for a goal in that time, with exceptional driving finishes coming against Wrexham and Rotherham United, as well as netting in the EFL Trophy against Shrewsbury Town.

The former Hoops man has already established a strong partnership with Paik Seung-Ho in the middle of the park, as well as edging Marc Leonard, who has previously excelled at this level with Northampton Town, out of the side.

With numbers such as 70 touches per game, a lot of Blues' aggressive and front-footed approach under the former Tottenham assistant runs through Iwata and Paik, with the ex-Celtic man acting as a key figure already, which is a frightening sign as to what could be possible for the remainder of the season.