This week, Rangers supporters saw two members of Philippe Clement’s squad linked with summer moves to the very same club.
And the response to a pair of potential Ibrox exits – the summer window now only a few months awasy from opening – was certainly very different.
As far as Borna Barisic is concerned, there is a feeling that the time is right for a fresh start, not only for the long-serving Croatia international but for Rangers too. According to reports, Barisic has agreed personal terms with Turkish outfit Trabzonspor.
But suggestions that one of the left-back‘s blue-clad team-mates could join him on the banks of the Black Sea have been met less with understanding and more concern.
Rangers could lose two players to the same club
“Yes, (Barisic) may be coming towards the end of his time at the club but his commitment to the cause has never been in doubt,” Rangers legend Barry Ferguson tells the Daily Record.
“If this is going to be his last few months in Glasgow then I am positive he’ll want to bow out with another championship in his bag. There could be no better way to say goodbye after so many years of service.
“Borna has obviously been heavily linked with a potential move to Trabzonspor and, as he’s out of contract this summer, he may have an eye on his next move.”
The same can be said of John Lundstram. He too is out of contract in July, after all. Ferguson, however, feels that while the time may be right to move on from a 31-year-old Barisic, losing Lundstram would be a far greater blow.
Alongside Jack Butland and James Tavernier, the former Everton and Sheffield United man is one of the very first names on Clement’s team sheet. More than that, his form over the last few months – to quote Ferguson – has been nothing short of ‘exceptional’.
The former Ibrox skipper is making no attempt to hide his fears, then, amid reports in Turkey indicating that Trabzonspor could come calling for Lundstram as well as Barisic.
John Lundstram’s contract is expiring
“(Trabzonspor) ought to be quickly told to forget all about it,” Ferguson says of a man who tends to grab the game by the scruff of the neck in a manner reminiscent of the former Ibrox skipper in his noughties heyday. “While it might be time for Barisic to move on, that’s not the case where the Scouser is concerned.
“Lundstram has played almost every single minute. That tells you how important the manager believes him to be to the team. And it tells me Clement will be desperate to get him tied down on a new deal over the course of the next few weeks. I certainly hope he puts pen to paper.
“Lundstram is one of those guys who thrives on the pressure and the responsibility of representing the club. And now that this campaign is coming down to the nitty gritty, I fully expect him to lead the charge from the front.
“Big clubs demand big players with big character. And, when everything is about to go on the line, it’s guys like Lundstram you want standing beside you in the trenches.”
Lundstram is highly likely to start when Rangers host Hibernian on Saturday. Barisic could feature too with Ridvan Yilmaz picking up an injury on international duty.
