Birmingham City first-team player set for overseas transfer move | OneFootball

Juninho Bacuna is closing in on a Birmingham City departure

Birmingham City winger Juninho Bacuna is set to depart St. Andrew's for Turkish top-flight outfit Sivasspor over the weekend, emerging as the latest outgoing following their relegation from the Championship in May.

The gears have been motioned for a summer of significant change in the blue quarters of the Second City, with Birmingham's ambitious Stateside ownership desperate to guide the club out of English football's third-tier at the very first time of asking.

This potential revolution - which many supporters feel was overdue, even at the expense of their second-tier status - has already seen 12 players from last season's relegation campaign move out of the exit door, while former Tottenham Hotspur assistant Chris Davies has been appointed as Head Coach after Tony Mowbray stepped down from his role owing to an ongoing health condition.

Meanwhile, a departure always appeared imminent for Bacuna and, if everything goes to plan, he'll be added to the list of Blues departures in the coming days.

Birmingham City's Juninho Bacuna set to join Sivasspor

According to a report from BirminghamLive, Blues have accepted an undisclosed offer from Sivasspor ahead of an impending move, with Bacuna being given formal permission to enter talks with the Turkish side.

Bacuna is set to be axed from Birmingham's squad for their pre-season trip to Austria and has almost certainly made the last of his 111 appearances since signing from Rangers two-and-a-half years ago.

Interestingly, Bacuna is the second Blues players to depart for Sivasspor this summer following Alex Pritchard's recent move to the club, bringing an end to his own short but fruitless spell with Birmingham.

Italian Serie A side Sassuolo were also linked with a move for the Curacao international, as per TuttoMercatoWeb, with another Turkish side in the form of Gaziantep interested too, but it is Sivasspor who are set to win the battle.

Birmingham City are right to sanction Juninho Bacuna sale

Bacuna is an extremely gifted and positionally-flexible player who can carry out a variety of roles with success, and you could've been pretty certain of his impact upon League One defences next term.

While his inconsistency was a routine source of frustration among disgruntled supporters, the fact of the matter is that Bacuna's return of 13 goal contributions kept Birmingham's survival hopes intact until the season-defining final day and was only usurped by popular Fulham loanee Jay Stansfield at the club last term.

Bacuna's talent is commendable- less so is his attitude and temperament, both of which came to the fore for all the wrong reasons when it wasn't going well at Birmingham, and Huddersfield Town's faithful voiced similar concerns during his time in West Yorkshire.

Davies will be eager to clear the squad of any players who could upset the apple cart, or any players who aren't wholly dedicated to helping the club navigate out of League One, and you've got to wonder whether Bacuna was.

The latest arrival of highly-rated winger Emil Hansson from Heracles is also suggestive of Davies' desire to take the team in a different and fresh direction, meaning that it feels best for both parties to be parting ways.