As you may be seeing from the red tops this morning, Croatia’s Borna Barišić has agreed a deal in principle with Türkiye’s Trabzonspor Kulübü (or Trabzonspor to you and I) and will go to the Trendyol Süper Lig this summer as a free agent to try and do what Ryan Kent couldn’t and succeed in southern Europe.
Barišić was close to a move to Roma but after Mourinho was fired, new boss Daniele De Rossi has no interest in the Rangers defender and that one fell through completely.
Now the side from Trabzon have come close to securing a deal with the Croatia international, who wasn’t called up for this international break, incidentally.
This story has been doing the rounds for a while – we know Trabzonspor are interested, and that the Rangers man’s agent did travel to Türkiye – Ibrox Noise sources confirmed that a fair few weeks ago.
Barišić has been completely free to discuss with other clubs since January 1st and after the Roma situation didn’t materialise, the Turkish giants are in pole position to nab him.
This further emphasises the Gijs Smal and Jefte situation, where the Dutchman ‘signed’ (agreed terms and closed in on move) for Feyenoord leaving Rangers completely free to follow up on the gentleman’s agreement for Brazil’s Jefte.
And Barisic is now equally completely free to depart Rangers this summer, meaning thanks to Rangers’ board’s ineptitude, a player who had a former peak value into the £15M range and who would have fetched Rangers around £7M-£10M once upon a time will leave for free.
The deal comes as Rangers try to sort definitively out the left back area – Barisic has had enough of Glasgow and Rangers now, wants a change, and his last few performances give some idea of how his heart has bottomed out on Scotland.
Meanwhile Ridvan Yilmaz is now formally first choice and will stay that way.
But a deputy is needed, and with the Croat not staying to play that role, Jefte is prime for that position. We can’t go on with Yilmaz alone.
So Barisic will head off, and Jefte will replace him.
Simple enough really?