There's not just one man flying the flag for the good old SPFL out in Qatar in the last four. Not that many seem to have noticed.
Celtic’s Josip Juranovic has been getting plaudits from the pundits and punters alike with his displays for Croatia on their run to the semi-finals and with the full back eying a move, his price tag has been rising by the day. Juranovic admitting he’s not a 30m euro player the other day will have had Celtic suits spitting out their tea, but there’s no doubt the £2.5m signing will provide them with a hefty profit some time soon on the back of Qatar.
It’s been far more low key for his international pal and domestic rival Borna Barisic though. That’s fair enough. The Rangers man has only played one game – but it was a stormer in Croatia’s typically hard-fought draw and penalty shootout win against Japan. Which is something Gers new boss Mick Beale should be taking encouragement from.
Barisic is a strange case at Ibrox. It wasn’t so long ago he was being talked about with the same kind of telephone number transfer fees now getting banded around about his buddy Juranovic. Now? There’s a lot of chat about polishing up Ridvan Yilmaz or even buying another left back, but not much about getting Barisic back to where he was 18 months ago.
Back then he was hot property – and he looked to be for the off. There are a couple of images that have summed up his last year or so, and both are pretty similar. Barisic was down on his hunkers at Ibrox in August 2021, greeting and waving like it was his big goodbye following the 2-1 win against Celtic.
A few months later and he was crouched down on his heels again, this time at Celtic Park, where he allowed Liel Abada to sneak in behind him to grab another goal in a derby drubbing that swung the title pendulum towards the east end of the city. It seemed like he never quite recovered from the chasing he got that night. In fact, it looked at times like he’s mentally checked out after that previous Old Firm encounter earlier in the campaign.
At that stage he seemed destined for a deadline day move to Roma that never materialised and he was never the same since. In fairness, there were a couple of ropey displays before then, but there were also some right good ones too.
This was a guy who was man of the match when Rangers beat Celtic at Parkhead in 2019 – the first time they’d won there in nearly a decade. He might have had a couple of horror shows against the Hoops but he gave them some amount of grief with that left boot of his as well.
Beale is looking to get the old band back together at Ibrox and he could do with getting a tune out of Barisic when he returns from Qatar. There’s still uncertainty around Yilmaz. He was an expensive signing but remains a work in progress.
Barisic is a proven player who now has a World Cup on his CV. If Rangers didn’t already have him and were in the market for Croatia’s back up left back, they probably couldn’t afford him.
Everyone knows his attributes. Going forward he’s a real threat and has a delivery like a medieval catapult. But Beale managed to get the big lad defending properly when he was last at Ibrox and if he can get his concentration levels honed again then he could either save or make the club a right few quid. Rangers have already made about 350 grand in compo for Barisic just being at the World Cup, but they might benefit even more when he gets back.
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