During the summer Ianis Hagi was told that he was ‘on the radar’ of Spurs, Real Madrid and Manchester City.
There seemed to be a never-ending list of Romanians discussing the brilliant young midfielder that had been replaced at Genk by Eboue Kouassi.
Apparently, for his age he was a better player that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The gullible lapped it up as their club agreed an imaginative deal to sign the future Balon d’Or winner. A fee of £3m was reported but Genk had apparently inserted a hefty sell-on fee to ensure that they didn’t miss out. Apparently.
A dream move to work with Steven Gerrard was cheered to the rafters but the reality rather than the surname and myth has landed in Scotland.
Despite the gushing praise from Romania the outstanding young talent has been dumped from the full International squad down to the u-21’s.
Former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu coaches the u-21 side and seems at odds with the gushing opinion of Hagi Jnr expressed by his countrymen.
He told the Daily Record:
Ianis’ confidence has been affected and he has not been starting so much for Rangers in the past few weeks either. I will speak to him and I am sure playing for the 21s again will give his confidence a big boost.
I know exactly what Ianis is capable of and for me to have him in my squad is a good thing. He will be able to help the rest of the players enormously. With lanis, I’ve known him from a young age and he is the perfect professional.
If he plays well against Denmark, both the national team and Rangers will benefit from it. For sure he will be 100 per cent ready and motivated to play for us.
Hagi was substituted after 64 minutes of the 4-0 defeat away to Norway on October 11, a few days later he was given the last 15 minutes of the 1-0 home defeat from Austria.