Midfielder opens up on his 'struggles' at Newcastle United

Bigirimana will play for Glentoran against Motherwell in the competition tonight.

The midfielder, signed from Coventry City for £1million in 2012, was part of the Newcastle team which reached the Europa League’s quarter-finals in what was his first season at St James’s Park.

However, Bigirmana, by his own admission, “struggled” at United in the following seasons, and he returned to Coventry in 2016.

The Burundi international believes he made the move to St James’s Park too early in his career.

“I never wanted to leave Coventry, but, of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing,” said Bigirimana. “I was 18, and it was too young as a footballer to go to such a big club like Newcastle. If I had waited until I was, say, 21, I may have had 200 games under my belt, and I would have gone to my next club as an established first-team player.

“The first year at Newcastle went well, but then the team started to struggle.”

Bigirimana – who spent last season at National League club Solihull Moors – believes he was “naive” at the time.

The 26-year-old said: “So many people have opinions of what happened during my time there, but I’m not going to point any fingers. Now that I’m 26, I can look back and I think that I was naive.”