BORNA BARISIC has been there, done that and got the T-shirt as he settled into life off the park at Ibrox and made a name for himself on it with Rangers.
And he is confident fellow full-back Ridvan Yilmaz will emerge through the same process with his reputation and prospects enhanced as he seeks to prove his worth this term.
The arrival of Yilmaz could have seen Barisic's game time limited during his fifth campaign in Scottish football as boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst invested heavily in the Turkish internationalist and secured a multi-million arrival from Besiktas.
The story of the season has been different than many expected, though. As Yilmaz has struggled to get a look in, Barisic has risen to the challenge and been a steady performer overall.
Van Bronckhorst and sporting director Ross Wilson have both been cautious about the impact that Yilmaz has made as fans question his relative lack of match minutes so far.
But the man that continues to hold down the left-back berth knows exactly how the 21-year-old will be feeling as he becomes accustomed to Glasgow and gets up to speed with Van Bronckhorst's side.
Barisic said: “Of course I can understand. It’s not easy to adapt here. It’s a different kind of football.
"It’s not European football, it’s more aggressive. The players are very strong. Playing for Rangers is tough and expectation is always really high.
"You have to adapt to that and sometimes it needs some time to do that. That’s normal. I don’t think it’s something weird.
“I don’t know if people understand it on the outside but the football world is very tough. Maybe it’s stupid that I even said that.
"People don’t need to care about that. We are professionals and we have to cope with all these situations.
"Of course it’s not easy when you are far away from home. I’ve been here for a long time now and it’s a different culture, different weather, different city – everything is different.
"The lifestyle is different. It’s a big change when you come here and you have to adapt. It’s not just football but a lot of things outside of football too.
"You are a professional player so you have to cope with that. That’s just normal.
"I’m not saying it’s easy but I don’t want to talk too much about that because that’s our job to adapt. Only the strongest survive.”
Barisic is set to retain the jersey once again as Rangers return to domestic action with the visit of St Mirren this afternoon and aim to record a third successive Premiership win.
The Buddies sit just four points adrift of Van Bronckhorst's side after an encouraging start to the campaign and are well-placed to launch a bid for a surprise Ibrox victory.
Barisic said: “They are in very good form. They are third in the league which is not a coincidence.
"We watched them, they are a quality side and defend very well. They have a very good structure.
"We know how they play exactly. And we respect them a lot as we do with every opponent. It will be a tough and hard game but I believe in our game and our positive mood in this moment.
"In front of our crowd I think we’re going to win. But for sure it will be a hard game against a team in good form. I need to praise that team because they’re good.
“It’s much easier when you play at Ibrox rather than away games. Now we can build some momentum and a good positive way of playing. Ibrox for sure gives us a chance to do that.”
