Life at Rangers certainly brought with it plenty of twists and turns.
But, only a few weeks into their post-Ibrox careers, neither John Lundstram nor Borna Barisic could have really predicted just how tumultuous things would prove to be at their new club.
The long-serving former Rangers duo both said their goodbyes when their contracts expired at the end of June.
Barisic, a veteran of that 2021 title-winning season under Steven Gerrard, departed having become a victim of Father Time with the younger Ridvan Yilmaz nicking his place in the starting XI.
Lundstram, meanwhile, was still capable of dominating Premiership midfields but, at the age of 30, Rangers opted to swap experience for exuberance while bringing in Connor Barron and Mohammed Diomande.
But amid all the hand-wringing from some supporters about Rangers’ start to the season – Philippe Clement’s side thrashed Ross County 6-0 last week but remain patchy – ‘disastrous’ feels like be a pretty accurate description of Trabzonspor’s own start to 2024/25.
Borna Barisic and John Lundstram left Rangers for Turkey
Despite bringing in both Barisic and Lundstram, retaining star goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir, and adding Okay Yokuslu, Denis Dragus and ex-Hull star Ozan Tufan to their ranks, Trabzonspor have failed to win any of their last five games.
The Black Sea outfit are out of Europe, too, and it’s not even September yet.
After being swept aside 3-0 by Rapid Vienna in the Europa League qualifiers, Trabzonspor were dumped from continental competition altogether after losing on penalties to Swiss outfit St Gallen in the Conference League play-offs.
Head coach Abdullah Avci, meanwhile, appears to have paid for such failings with his job.
Turkish reporter Yagiz Sabuncuoglo claims, via his official X account, that Trabzonspor have parted company with Avci. And while official confirmation is yet to arrive, the Super Lig giants have announced that the former national team boss did not attend training on Saturday, per Sporx.
Trabzonspor out of Europe already
What this means for Barisic and Lundstram remains to be seen.
But no European football and seemingly no manager? This was not the start they would have envisaged when the veteran former Rangers duo reunited at the Papara Park two months ago.
Barisic, at least, converted his penalty during the shoot-out defeat to St Gallen, Trabzonspor dumped from the competition after ex-Manchester City and Atletico Madrid defender Stefan Savic clattered the crossbar.
Lundstram, however, started on the bench in both legs. Barisic has been an ever-present in recent weeks, but his former Ibrox team-mate is yet to nail down a place in the first XI.
Lundstram will be hoping that the appointment of a new head coach can be something of a jumping-off point for him in his new Turkish home.
As for Barisic, his arrival at Trabzonspor was labelled a ‘masterstroke’ by Avci back in July. Flash forward to the end of August, and ‘masterstroke’ is just about the last word anyone at the Papara is using to describe a miserable start to a potentially doomed campaign.
