Borna Barisic about to quit Rangers as Ibrox ‘disgrace’ causes outrage

Journalist Gary Keown of the Mail on Sunday claims that Borna Barisic is set to depart Rangers on a free transfer.

The 30-year-old Barisic, whose contract expires at the end of the current campaign, may become the latest in a long line of established players to depart Ibrox without a contract in the final year despite their value to the team.

Keown is furious about the Ibrox contract mishandling and is pleading with Philippe Clement to help select a new director of football who will ensure that these errors never occur again.

Keown, conscious of sounding like a broken record here, wrote in the Scottish Mail on Sunday, November 5 (pages 100 and 101), “Overall recruitment and the manager of assets at Rangers in recent years has been a disgrace.” In addition to a great deal of garbage being signed, important players like Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos were permitted to expire their contracts and go for nothing.

Whatever your opinion of Borna Barisic, who has represented Croatia on 31 occasions, he is set to leave for nothing as well. It can’t continue.

Behind the scenes, Clement is enforcing strict guidelines for fitness work and communicating with the medical department. He must ensure that the board get it right with a new director of football as well and sharpen up in terms of the way they source talent, nurture it and, ultimately, make profit on it.

“With Barisic out of contract in the summer, there is little to suggest [Ridvan] Yilmaz, although still 22, will be a dependable replacement despite the £3.4m spent to sign him from Besiktas.”

Preposterous

It’s too soon to predict that Barisic will leave Ibrox for free.

Given that his contract expires at the end of the season, clubs will undoubtedly be able to approach him in January with a pre-contract deal.

Though there are still nearly two months until then, there’s no doubt that Govan is working behind the scenes to extend the left-back’s contract by at least another 12 months.

Keown must not have read this week’s reports regarding the Croatian international’s predicament.

On November 3, Football Scotland reported that Barisic is being courted by Watford and Roma for a new contract, and that negotiations are currently in progress to get him to sign one.

Although Barisic has occasionally been a liability for Glasgow, he is a player with value in the transfer market, and it is imperative to avoid a Morelos or Kent scenario in the future.

There must be something there if Jose Mourinho is examining Barisic, but if we were the full back, we would hold off and see what January has to offer.

A year ago, this should have been resolved.