Huddersfield Town’s transfer warning: Birmingham City, Rangers ignored it | OneFootball

Juninho Bacuna endured some extremely mixed spells throughout his career

Towards the end of the 2010s, Huddersfield Town supporters endured a remarkable rollercoaster ride of events which, ultimately, peaked when they earned promotion to the Premier League under David Wagner 2016/17.

Despite featuring in a division which included a plethora of giants such as Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest, the Terriers marked the German's first full campaign at the Accu Stadium with a second play-off triumph in five years on penalties, this time against Reading.

Given their stature in comparison to several upcoming top-flight rivals, the West Yorkshire side were made immediate favourites for relegation, but, again, were able to prove the doubters wrong despite a patchy second half of the campaign as they finished in 16th place, two places and four points ahead of Swansea City, who occupied the final space in the relegation zone.

After overachieving for a two-year period, Wagner's attention then turned to how he could attempt to further consolidate Huddersfield's position in the Premier League with limited financial resources.

Many players would arrive at the club throughout an active summer window, including club-record signing, Terence Kongolo, from AS Monaco.

However, the vast majority would end up flattering to deceive in blue and white, and in the case of Juninho Bacuna, Town weren't the only club who ended up making a transfer blunder on the Curaçao international.

Huddersfield Town failed to win FC Groningen, Juninho Bacuna transfer agreement

Bacuna was signed from Eredivisie side, FC Groningen for a reported £2.6m on a three-year contract, enabling the midfielder to follow in the footsteps of his brother, Leandro, and feature in the Premier League.

However, it would prove to be a disastrous first season in Yorkshire for the-then 20-year-old, as he made 23 appearances in all competitions as the Terriers finished rock-bottom of the table on just 16 points, with the majority of those outings coming under Wagner's successor, Jan Siewert.

In fairness to the playmaker, his first season in the Championship was a respectable campaign on an individual basis, scoring six times and posting four assists in just 38 appearances, although, overall, Huddersfield would spend the majority of the campaign attempting to avoid back-to-back relegations to League One.

After another mediocre season in what was Carlos Corberan's first at the Accu Stadium, it was confirmed that Town would make a loss on the services of Bacuna, as he linked up with then-Scottish Premiership champions, Rangers, for a deal reportedly worth up to £2m.

Juninho Bacuna endured further mixed stints with Rangers and Birmingham City

After penning a two-year contract at Ibrox, with Rangers, at the time, managed by Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard, the Dutch youth international was clearly looking forward to the challenge.

"It is great that a team like Rangers is interested in you, especially after they have become the champions," he stated.

Ultimately, Bacuna struggled to break into Gerrard's initial lineup in Glasgow, making a handful of appearances under the Scouser before he exited for Aston Villa and was replaced by Giovanni Van Bronckhorst.

It was a dim spell in Scotland for the midfielder, which ended rather prematurely just months into his contract after just 12 appearances, with Birmingham City swooping for his services under Lee Bowyer.

Bacuna then stated that Gerrard's exit was the main factor behind his reduced gametime, which immediately changed at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park, with his first goal coming in a 3-0 win over Luton Town in March 2022.

After an impressive first few months in the West Midlands, the midfielder was also a dependable figure under John Eustace, particularly in the 2022/23 season, where he scored twice and posted six assists as Blues finished 17th.

However, his last campaign in B9 certainly wasn't one to write home about, even though it started with such promise following Tom Wagner's takeover.

Bacuna. to his credit, still emerged with seven goals and six assists in 43 league appearances, despite the fact that Birmingham were relegated on 50 points after a campaign which included six permanent or interim managers/head coaches.

Although relegation, ultimately, wasn't anywhere near his responsibility as much as others, the midfielder appeared to have vanished any form of goodwill he had with the Bluenoses, as, in the subsequent pre-season, he was spotted training in Aston Villa shorts, albeit there was a well-documented link between the B6 club and his older brother.

However, Bacuna would play no part in the club's record-breaking League One season as he joined Al-Wehda in August 2024 and has since returned to the Netherlands with FC Volendam.

As such, it is clearly Rangers who didn't heed Huddersfield's initial transfer warning the most, although Blues fans will be disappointed as to how Bacuna's St. Andrew's spell came to an end also.