Juninho Bacuna will blow hot and cold for Rangers according to former youth coach Peter Hoekstra - as he explains the midfielder's previous hot streak.
Rangers manager Steven Gerrard signed the Curaco international for a fee of around £2 million in the summer.
Hoekstra - a former Dutch international - first coached Bacuna at the age of nine and worked with him all the way up to U-19 level at Dutch side Groningen.
While he had bags of ability, Bacuna also possessed anger which once got him banned for nine games. He has now developed from this horror moment.
"He could lose his mind though, as he had a temper," Hoekstra told The Athletic. "Sometimes he would play very well as he was concentrated, but at other times, he would do stupid things.
"He once got a nine-game suspension for punching someone’s jaw when he was around 13. Over the years, he learned about it.”
Bacuna's ability is undoubted according to his former mentor, but Rangers fans are yet to see the best of him.
The midfielder has played just 91 minutes of football over five matches for the Ibrox club across the Europa League, League Cup and Premiership.
“He was a technical player, a free spirit," Hoekstra added. "That means that sometimes he is fantastic or sometimes you can’t do anything with him. He is still like that — only he is older now.
"He always had a very good shot and was a natural dribbler. He loved the game, so it was more about whether he could concentrate for 90 minutes.
"He played as a striker for a few years but he then moved to an attacking midfielder, and then a controlling midfielder."
