Battle-hardened Kranjcar unfazed
RANGERS Croat tells Stewart Fisher why he is not daunted by Scottish game
NEW York is so good they named it twice but as far as Niko Kranjcar is concerned Glasgow is miles better. The Croatian playmaker joined Rangers after a spell in the North American Soccer League with New York Cosmos, but it is his time in Scotland which has proved to be out of this world.
The 31-year-old, whose abilities on the ball have been showcased during four comfortable earlyseason wins in the Betfred Cup, stares contentedly out at a “billiard table” of a practice pitch at the Rangers Training Centre and claims even the inclement weather has been to his liking. “Glasgow is beautiful,” said Kranjcar. “You might be laughing, but I do prefer it. For me, it’s got a lot more soul.”
Whether he similarly appreciates life in the Ladbrokes Premiership is the next question, the first answer to which will come along when the Ibrox side kick off their first top-flight campaign for four years against Hamilton Academical on Saturday. Celtic amassed a total of 86 points last season, to claim the title by 15 from Aberdeen, but judging by the way he interrogated manager Mark Warburton when the pair first met, in the Big Apple this summer, the Croat’s burgeoning love affair with the Caledonian football scene will only be fully consummated if the Ibrox side are named champions at the first time of asking.
Whilst admittedly not up to speed with the rest of the division, he expects Rangers and Celtic to be battling it out at the top and feels the Ibrox side’s hopes of lifting the title will only benefit if the Parkhead side’s energies are sapped by coping with the dual demands of the league and Champions League.
“The target is to win the title,” said Kranjcar. “It has to be. I don’t know the other teams. But that [title tussle] is something I expect. But I think it’s down to us to determine how we go about our business, and not to think about Celtic. What I learned back home in Croatia is that it is not the Old Firm matches which are going to win you the titles – it’s dropping points against teams that you are expecting to beat.”
Kranjcar’s old QPR team-mate Joey Barton memorably claimed that he had arrived north of the Border with the intention of being best player in Scotland. He will have to prove he is the best player in his own dressing room.
Kranjcar laughs off the notion that his technical abilities will be discomfited by what could euphemistically be termed the physical demands of the Scottish game. This is a man who captained Dynamo Zagreb at the age of 17. “I have had it all my life,” he said. “There is nothing different. It makes you happy when they can’t get close to you without kicking you. It means you are doing something well. But I don’t think this is a dirty league. It is going to be physical, of course, but that is part of football.”
Despite being blessed with excellent physique, Kranjcar does concede that the defensive elements of his game aren’t his strongest suit. There could be a conundrum for the Rangers manager when it comes to finding the right balance between Kranjcar, Barton and perhaps one of Jordan Rossiter, Andy Halliday, Jason Holt or Josh Windass, but Warburton’s best form of defence thus far has been nourishing the football. He sees no reason to change that now.
“I said to David [Weir, his assistant at Brentford and now Rangers] down south that I thought we were already 1-0 up if teams were suddenly going to change their formation to play against us,” Warburton said.
Superstar or not, Kranjcar will simply be expected to do his share of the chores like everyone else.
Eight players have left Govan this summer and nine others have come in. While the quality and experience at Warburton’s disposal has clearly increased, at least two more new signings are likely to arrive, one at either end of the field, most likely loans from Barclays Premier League clubs. A second coming for Tottenham Hotspur’s Dominic Ball should he become available would make sense, as would a tall, prolific
I have had it all my life. It makes you happy when they can’t get close to you without kicking you
striker at the other. “We’re never going to be a direct, long-ball team to a 6ft 5in centre-forward,” said Warburton. “That’s never going to happen as long as I’m here. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get tall, very talented ball players.”
Unlike his Croatian playmaker, Warburton was in no mood to write off the likes of Aberdeen and Hearts. “There’s a threat the teams pose and to say it’s just Rangers and Celtic is nonsensical,” he said.
Previously an occasionally surly figure, Kranjcar is convincing when he claims to have discovered fresh motivation. He has just two titles to his name, fully a decade ago, with Dynamo Zagreb and Hadjuk Split in his homeland. While his Spurs pals Gareth Bale and Luca Modric moved on to bigger and better things, his move to Dynamo Kiev in 2012 wasn’t quite so auspicious.
“I’m not happy with the last two or three years of my career,” he said. “That’s why it was such a big thing for me to come to a club which was competing for a title.
“I have to say the way I am playing right now in this team, and the way we play, with a lot of rotation, interchanging and moving between the lines, it suits me a lot. As long as I have a lot of contact with the football then I will be happy.”