Former Rangers flop Juninho Bacuna is enjoying the best scoring season of his career at Birmingham City with manager Tony Mowbray drawing comparisons between the ‘brilliant’ midfielder and one-time Ibrox loanee Amad Diallo.
Two years since Birmingham came to the midfielder’s rescue and brought an end to Juninho Bacuna’s miserable five-month spell north of the border, the one-time Rangers benchwarmer is playing the best football of his career.
With seven goals in all competitions, this is already Bacuna’s most prolific campaign. Some stat, really, considering that the clocks haven’t even gone forward yet, and we still have a the dregs of post-Christmas Bailey’s lingering in the fridge.
The one-time Huddersfield Town ace has always had an eye for the spectacular. And the sumptuous free-kick which earned Mowbray his first win in the Blues hot seat away to Stoke City on Saturday was typical of a man who could yet be putying on his very own Goal of the Season showcase come May.
Former Rangers flop now signing in England
“I don’t think it’s disrespectful to say he’s as mad as a hatter really,” Mowbray tells the Birmingham Mail of a mercurial talent who is finally starting to add some consistency to his game.
“He’s a brilliant footballer. I just try to give his tummy a little tickle every now and then, and tell him how brilliant he is. And then he wants to work hard for you.”
Mowbray’s arm-around-the-shoulder approach has certainly reaped rewards in the past when sharing a dressing room with similarly enigmatic talents. The one-time Celtic boss draws comparisons between Bacuna his former Sunderland stars Jack Clarke, Patrick Roberts and Amad Diallo, the £19 million Manchester United starlet who tore the Championship apart on Wearside after struggling to make his mark north of the border at Rangers.
“Let’s give him (Bacuna) the ball,” Mowbray adds. “The team I just left (Sunderland), I would just say to the team; ‘Give the ball to Clarkey, give the ball to Roberts, Diallo…
“Just give the ball to the best players.
“I can’t teach Bacuna to bend the ball into the top corner from 25 yards. He just does it.”
Seven goals. thisseason already
Rangers did not pay an upfront free when signing Bacuna from Huddersfield in August 2021. Instead, they agreed a deal which would have seen the Curacao international eventually set them back around £2 million via a series of add-ons and clauses (Yorkshire Live).
That, perhaps, is why Rangers seized the chance to cut their losses when Birmingham came calling just five months later, the Glasgow giants avoiding a costly pay-day for a player who clearly wasn’t part of their plans.
