John Eustace issues update on Leandro Bacuna’s Birmingham City situation | OneFootball

Birmingham City head coach John Eustace has revealed that he plans to sit down with free agent midfielder Leandro Bacuna to discuss his options when he returns to the club’s training complex following international duty, with several teams from overseas looking into the possibility of acquiring him.

It was confirmed by Eustace a few weeks ago that the 31-year-old, who has played for Blues’ bitter rivals Aston Villa and also Cardiff City during his career, was training with the rest of the squad in a bid to keep fit following his release from the Bluebirds this summer.

Bacuna’s younger brother Juninho is a Birmingham player and Eustace has explained that Leandro being brought in for training is a favour for the club’s number seven.

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Even though the chances of signing the older Bacuna sibling were played down by Eustace weeks ago, it wasn’t flat-out denied, but it does appear more likely that the Curacao international will head abroad, with Panathinaikos linked recently.

A move to St. Andrew’s though could still happen, and Eustace has spoken about the next steps that will occur when Leandro returns to the club after appearing twice for his nation this past week.

“He [Leandro] has been away on international duty, I know he has got a few options to play abroad,” Eustace told BirminghamLive.

“When he comes back we will have a sit down and see what he is doing, but ultimately he has just been coming in with his brother to train, we have done his brother a favour.”

Despite signing both Krystian Bielik and Hannibal this summer, Birmingham would not be harmed if they added another player to their engine room.

Bielik can’t be fully trusted to stay fit after suffering two serious knee injuries in his career so far, and one of the upsides of the older Bacuna brother is that he is versatile, having also featured as a right-back in the last few years.

That is an area of the pitch where Birmingham could do with some cover for Maxime Colin, although they do have young Josh Williams coming through the ranks to battle with the Frenchman.

Bacuna didn’t show much at Cardiff City last season though before being frozen out, so it would probably be better for his career if he took up an offer that looks to be on the table abroad.