Glasgow Rangers must give Borna Barisic a new deal if recent reports are to be believed…
What’s the word?
According to Football Insider, Barisic has received praise from former treble-winning Rangers boss Alex McLeish. McLeish admitted that he had doubted him when he first arrived at Ibrox, but believes the “tremendous” defender is now an important part of Steven Gerrard’s side.
He said: “There was talk that he wasn’t quite good enough for the Rangers level, he’d again hit a bit of a patch of bad form and looking a wee bit vulnerable.
“But that’s confidence and you don’t know what a person is like, you’ve never walked in their shoes and it’s difficult to know what he’s feeling in his stomach or what he’s feeling in his head at a certain moment.
“In my days at Aberdeen, I remember losing my form and Sir Alex dropped me and I was humiliated.
“Then I played in a game and I thought I did pretty well but we got battered 3-0 by Dundee United, 3-0 at home. I thought, ‘that’s it, I’ll be dropped again’ but he said to me: ‘That was more like yourself tonight,’ and all of a sudden my mentality came back strong again and my confidence was there.
“They’re only human so I think Barisic has actually exceeded expectations now such is his tremendous form.”
Barisic was part of the back four alongside Connor Goldson, Filip Helander and James Tavernier that prevented Celtic from taking a single shot on target during the first Old Firm derby of the season. It’s now up to Ross Wilson to convince the left-back to sign a new deal after he attracted interest from elite clubs in the summer.
Deserves new deal
Alright, we get it – the Croatia international recently signed a contract extension at the start of the year, whilst his wages have increased to £18,000-per-week, which is more than what club captain James Tavernier currently earns.
Rangers slapped an £8m price tag on his head, although that may not be enough to deter potential suitors if Premier League clubs like Leeds United rear their ugly heads in January. In fact, Leeds were willing to pay £13m to prise Robin Koch away from Freiburg, who now earns £50,000-per-week at Elland Road, which just goes to show the amount of money they are willing to throw at their defence.
However, Gerrard once again insisted the Croatian is not for sale, saying: “We’re not surprised if there is any interest in Borna.
“Of course we’re not because he has been a consistent performer for us for some time now and he has started the season so brightly again.
“But he has signed a long-term deal here, everyone loves him, the fans like him and he was in the running for Player of the Year.”
Even so, the 27-year-old may be unable to resist such a tempting lucrative offer in the future. As we all know, money talks.
Whilst Barisic may not be going anywhere anytime soon at the very least, a hike in wages should be more than enough to fend off any lingering interest from elsewhere in the winter transfer window for the time being.
SofaScore gave him a high grade of 7.4 for his performance at Parkhead – he completed one interception and two clearances, whilst he made one key pass, two crosses, created one big chance, and won three out of six ground duels, as well as five out of seven aerial duels.
He received a rating of 7/10 from Sky Sports, whilst The Daily Record gave him the same score, claiming he “was able to match the attacking runs of Frimpong down his side with good positional sense and one brilliant ball almost volleyed home by Kent.”
If the Gers are to regain their title, we suspect that he may have a part to play bombing up and down the flanks. That’s if he stays until the end of the season, of course.
AND in other news, Rangers must watch out for Standard Liege’s Mehdi Carcela in Europa League…