Scottish Premiership giants Rangers will be desperate to keep Borna Barisic at Steven Gerrard’s disposal amid links with Serie A outfit Roma.
Borna Barisic is ‘happy’ at Rangers and has no desire to swap Ibrox for Italy, Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic has told the BBC.
This time last year, if you had told Rangers fans that their £2.2 million left-back was a target for Serie A giants Roma, you would have been met with a chorus of laughter.
Barisic, after all, looked a player short of confidence and quality at times during a difficult debut season in Scotland.
But the former Osijek star has been a man reborn in recent months, establishing himself as the country’s best left-back amid a series of fizzing free-kicks and pinpoint crosses.
In all competitions, Barisic has produced an impressive 14 assists with those statistics catching the eye of Roma, according to Calciomercato.
But Dalic, who has made the 27-year-old his number one left-back at international level, is not expecting to see one of his key men leave Ibrox any time soon.
“I believe that Borna is happy at Rangers. I know he enjoys the fantastic crowd at Ibrox and working with Steven Gerrard because he feels he can learn a lot from him and that he improves under his guidance,” said the 2018 World Cup runner-up, who has likened Barisic’s initial struggles to Luka Modric’s infamous debut season at Real Madrid.
“It takes time for every player to adapt to a new club, new league, surroundings, coach, team-mates, language.
“You may remember that Luka Modric was named as the worst signing by Real Madrid after his first six months with the club – and you know how the rest of his career in Madrid played out.”
Less than a month ago, Barisic seemingly committed his long-term future to Rangers, putting pen to paper on a new deal until 2024. Roma, it seems, will have to look elsewhere.
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