When the whistle blew for the last time on Rangers 2021/22 season, few fans would have expected the most intense speculation about one of our left-backs attracting offers from a few clubs being about Borna Barisic.
The Croatian international wasn’t at his best last season providing just three assists and failing to hit the net, his struggles though saw Calvin Bassey the opportunity to rise to prominence and become one of the most talked about players in British football.
Trabzonspor were initially linked with Barisic with a sizeable fee expected to be needed to sign a player with two years still to run on his current deal, however, a report by The 4th Official claims that, as yet, there have been no formal offers:
“Apparently Trabzonspor have made a bid if reports from Turkish media is to be believed.
”However, two separate sources have confirmed to me that Rangers have not received any bid for the defender. That could change obviously given the dynamics of this transfer window, but as of right now, there is no official bid.
”Very interesting to see if a real bid comes in Barisic and what happens from there.”
It’s definitely a case of “watch this space” and we could well find ourselves in the position of needing two new players for one role – outside of these two, only Leon King and Jack Simpson have played at left-back in the last two seasons unless you include Glenn Middleton’s appearance off the bench against Falkirk in the 2020/21 league cup.
Only Josh Tymon of Stoke City has been mentioned as a replacement so far but I’d expect the recruitment team to have a decent list of names lined up, hopefully, if we do lose two key squad members, Ross Wilson doesn’t have to go too far down to fill the sizeable gaps left behind.