Borna Barisic admits his Rangers ‘fairy-tale’ story is over and that he is ‘not happy’ with his current role in Giovanni Van Bronckhorst’s plans at Ibrox, via quotes by the Glasgow Times.
Barisic has fallen out of favour in recent weeks after Van Bronckhorst hauled the Croatian full-back off at half-time in the Gers’ Old Firm derby defeat to Celtic on February 2. He has since proven to be Calvin Bassey’s understudy, at best, with the Nigerian often impressing.
Van Bronckhorst felt forced into making a change as Barisic endured a nightmare opening 45 minutes at Parkhead. Kenny Miller even dubbed the 29-year-old’s first-half showing as ‘sloppy’ on the ball and slammed the 23-cap dynamo for ‘absolutely schoolboy defending’.
The left-back role was Barisic’s to lose before the Old Firm derby, yet he has played in two of Rangers’ seven Premiership fixtures since. Bassey also opened both of the Gers’ Europa League last 16 matches with Red Star Belgrade, while Barisic featured for 10 minutes total.
If it were not for Rangers advancing in Europe and the Scottish Cup, Barisic will likely have played even less. Quite the comedown for a player who has amassed 32 outings across all competitions so far this season. And one who had offered 14 assists in 50 games last term.
Borna Barisic admits ‘fairy-tale’ is over and is ‘not happy’ with Rangers role
Barisic even snubbed chances to leave Rangers during the January transfer window, with Football Scotland reporting he was happy and enjoying life in Glasgow. Watford had made a £2m bid for the defender, who the Gers valued at £5m with him under contract to 2024.
Yet the 2018 arrival from Osijek may now regret not trying to force a move to the Premier League side. He is no longer happy at Ibrox after falling out of favour. But Barisic does not view the end of his ‘fairy-tale’ story at Rangers to be the end of the world. Just yet at least.
“As far as Rangers goes, I’m still playing plenty of minutes because we are playing every three or four days at the moment,” Barisic said. “I haven’t played in a few games and I’m not happy about that, but it’s not a drama.
“It’s been a fairy-tale for me at Rangers, and some things have changed now. But it’s nothing terrible.”
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