Fabrizio Romano: Following this week’s news from Europe, the Rangers’ plan to replace Barisic is in ruins.

The news that the Rangers’ attempt to replace one of their stars is now in ruins has dealt them a serious blow.Barisic will go from Ibrox.

Borna Barisic has served the Rangers for a long time, but it looks like his time there is running out. The Croatian defender will be a free agent at the end of the current campaign because his contract expires this summer and he hasn’t signed new terms with the team he has played for the last six seasons. This season, he has made just 15 appearances in the Scottish Premiership and has played in the competition for just over 1000 minutes, significantly fewer than the 2500 minutes he played in the previous campaign. True, he has slid to the bottom of Philippe Clement’s pecking order—Ridvan Yilmaz is frequently preferred above the 31-year-old—but he has also been connected to leaving.

Rangers might already have the perfect Barisic substitute on staff.
The team appears to be prepared for life without their dependable left-back, and as Yilmaz’s future at Ibrox is also uncertain, the Gers were already planned to sign a left-back but were searching for creative ways to circumvent the market and complete a transaction at a low cost.

But that optimism has now been dashed.

Gers target has decided on his next team already.

One of the reported alternatives was FC Twente left-back Gjis Smal, who is expected to be out of contract with the Dutch side this summer.

Rangers might have used their financial clout for other transfer market transactions by using this to their advantage and seize the 26-year-old on a free transfer. Although they had expressed interest in signing the Dutchman in January, they finally decided to postpone signing him.

Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano claims that Small has already decided to leave Twente this summer, but he isn’t going to Ibrox.

He has chosen to remain in the Netherlands instead, where he will sign a contract with Feyenoord. Despite the lack of formal confirmation, Romano has taken to X to clarify that he has a “verbal pact in place” and that he is “nearly done” with the arrangement to join as a free agent after Smal “turned down a bid from abroad,” which might very well be from Ibrox.

This news will be devastating to Clement, who will now need to go back to the drawing board and look for a left back, or come up with a last-minute deal to keep Barisic.

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