Could two of the players who started Rangers’ Old Firm derby defeat at Celtic Park find themselves sharing a dressing room with a World Cup-winning, modern day footballing great next season?
And we don’t mean at Ibrox.
If there were any Rangers supporters will hoping for a breakthrough in the discussions surrounding the futures of Borna Barisic and John Lundstram, then one suspects they were a little quiet when Willie Collum brought an end to a game which all-but concludes Philippe Clement‘s lingering Premiership title hopes.
Barisic’s very own nigthmare-inducing paralysis demon, Liel Abada, may have departed. But as James Forrest rolled back the years on the right wing, Rangers’ ageing left-back once again looked a pale imitation of his former self.
And the less said about Lundstram’s performance – an own goal and a red card in the space of just seven first-half minutes – the better.
Borna Barisic and John Lundstram near Rangers exits
Barisic and Lundstram are reportedly in talks to leave Rangers on free transfer, and join Turkish giants Trabzonspor. On Saturday’s evidence, it will be less of a tear-jerking ‘goodbye’ and more ‘good riddance’.
“Three transfers are done. One more transfer is coming to an end,” Trabzonspor president Ertugrul Dogan tells A Spor, the Ibrox duo supposedly making up two-thirds of that aforementioned trio. “We already had three transfers that have recently reached the completion stage.”
“We started planning the new season long ago. We’re trying to have a transfer window without making mistakes with the signings. There will be young and talented names. There will also be names that are truly experienced and will add value to the team.
“But we do not have the luxury of making mistakes this year.”
If Barisic and Lundstram fall into the ‘experienced’ camp, then so does another man reportedly on Trabzonspor’s radar. And with all due respect to the long-serving Rangers duo, there won’t be too many Trabzonspor supporters clamouring to get their names on the back of a 2024/25 jersey if Angel di Maria also makes the trip to the banks of the Black Sea this summer.
Ibrox duo could join Angel di Maria in Turkey
According to the Taka Gazete, the former Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United winger – one of the best and most decorated forwards of the 21st century – is in line for a move to Turkey.
Di Maria will also be a free-agent in July, his contract at Benfica entering it’s final few weeks.
Besiktas chief Feyyaz Ucar claimed last week that Di Maria is not on the radar of the Istanbul giants, but there have been no such denials from Trabzonspor at this stage.
As such, there may be a chance that Barisic finds himself going head to head with Di Maria on the training pitch next season, with Lundstram funnelling those trademark passes out to a man who, even at the age of 36, continues to put up numbers forwards far younger than him can only dream of.
Di Maria, a key part of Argentina’s 2022 World Cup-winning squad, has 17 goals and 15 assists this season. It was the veteran schemer who set up Rafa Silva’s winner at Ibrox as Benfica knocked Rangers out of the Europa League in February.
