Rangers flop now ‘a brilliant footballer’ and likened to £19m

Rangers flop now ‘a brilliant footballer’ and likened to £19m Man United ace

With Birmingham City, former Rangers misfit Juninho Bacuna is having his best scoring season to date. Manager Tony Mowbray has

likened the “brilliant” midfielder to former Ibrox loanee Amad Diallo.

The former Rangers benchwarmer, Juninho Bacuna, is having his best season as a player, two years after Birmingham saved his life

and ended his wretched five-month stay north of the border.

This is already Bacuna’s most productive campaign to date, with seven goals across all competitions. Some stat, really, given that we

still have leftover Bailey’s from Christmas sitting in the refrigerator and the clocks haven’t even moved forward.

The former star player for Huddersfield Town has always had a flair for the extraordinary. And Mowbray’s magnificent free-kick that

gave him his first victory as the Blues’ captain against Stoke City on Saturday was reminiscent of a player who might still be putting on

his own Goal of the Season showcase in May.

“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.”

When Mowbray shared a dressing room with equally mysterious talents in the past, his arm-around-the-shoulder method

undoubtedly paid off. The former Celtic manager draws parallels between Bacuna and his former Sunderland players, Patrick Roberts,

Jack Clarke, and Amad Diallo, the £19 million Manchester United prospect who destroyed the Championship in Wearside after

finding it difficult to establish himself at Rangers north of the border.