Andy Walker urges Rangers to sell Borna Barisic as ‘absolutely dreadful’ scenario mooted
Andy Walker has compared Rangers’ handling of Borna Barisic’s contract situation at Ibrox with the decision to allow both Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent to leave on free transfers.
Both players departed Ibrox at the end of last season having run down their contracts in Glasgow as they were not offered new deals with Michael Beale’s side. Rangers didn’t receive a transfer fee for either player as they left as free agents.
Croatian international Barisic is entering the final year of his deal with the Light Blues and so far there has been little to no suggestion of him extending his stay at Ibrox and former Celtic striker Walker is worried the Gers are repeating their mistakes.
Speaking on the Go Radio Football Show on Tuesday (12 September), he said: “It doesn’t make any business sense to let him run his contract down and not got any money for him. It would be absolutely dreadful. It didn’t make any sense to do it with Morelos or Kent either.
“When he’s got two years left on his contract does he want to extend it? If the answer is no, you need to sell him.”
Former Livingston defender James McPake was keen to sing the 30-year-old’s praises as well, saying: “You can do all the preparation you want to try and stop the crosses but he’s that good he’ll find a way to get it into the box.”
Dreadful
Rangers should have learned from this summer’s departures and not allowed Barisic to run his contract down as not only will Beale lose his best left-back, the Light Blues would have missed the chance to earn a decent fee for a full international.
As Walker suggested, this should have been a problem that was dealt with last year, rather than bleeding into the new campaign. Now the transfer window is closed, Beale should be having less distracting him from winning on match days, but it seems as though the focus has shifted from new arrivals to possible departures.
With Ridvan Yilmaz left out of the Gers’ Europa League squad on Tuesday (12 September), Barisic is the Gers’ only obvious option at left-back with the right-footed Dujon Sterling his deputy.
Should Barisic leave as a free agent at the end of the current campaign, Beale or whoever is in charge at Ibrox by then will have to be in the market for another left-sided defender next summer and it is hard to find one with as good a delivery as the Croatian.
It doesn’t happen often from a Rangers’ perspective, but Walker might be right on this one.
In other Rangers news, Kemar Roofe must step up to lead the Gers’ front line after his European recall