Steven Gerrard’s Scottish Premiership giants reportedly want Olympiakos’s Kostas Tsimikas but is the Borna Barisic replacement heading to Serie A?
With a paucity of top-quality left-backs in the game today, it is perhaps no surprise that the rising stars of Rangers and Olympiakos have become such a regular presence in the daily gossip columns.
If reports are to be believed, Steven Gerrard’s Glasgow giants are facing one hell of a challenge if they want to retain Borna Barisic, the big-money flop turned toast of Ibrox, for one more season.
“Rangers won’t be able to keep Borna after the season he’s had, even though he’s just signed a new contract,” the Croatian’s agent, Ives Cakarun, told the Daily Record recently.
While the Gers appeared to have identified a ready-made replacement for Barisic in the shape of Kostas Tsimikas, according to PageNews, it seems that this jet-heeled Greek international has gone from a viable transfer target to nothing more than a pipe dream in the blink of an eye.
Just three months after Tsimikas was linked with a move to Ibrox, his price-tag and his reputation have sky-rocketed.
First it was Napoli. Now, Antonio Conte’s Serie A challengers Inter Milan. Tsimikas, who Olympiakos now value at a staggering £18 million, looks bound for Italy with two bonafide Champions League giants squabbling over his signature (Gazzetta dello Sport).
So Rangers’ task might have just got that little bit harder. Even if Barisic goes, substantially swelling Gerrard’s transfer warchest, the chances of Tsimikas arriving to take his place look slimmer by the day.
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