DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
Barisic is on hand to help Hagi hit the ground running at Rangers after his own struggles settling in
IANIS HAGI has little scope to plead for an adjustment period to the unfamiliar environment of Rangers and Scottish football. There are 15 league games and less than four months remaining of this desperate bid to derail Celtic. The Romanian’s fascinating wildcard capture on loan from Genk is designed to make a difference with immediate effect.
Having Borna Barisic’s cautionary tales on tap could, then, be valuable in helping Hagi to swerve the common pitfalls that lie in wait for young foreign arrivals in the Old Firm bubble.
The Croatian full-back, by his own admission, was too slow to grasp the gravity of what was required to be a success at Rangers.
He struggled with those failings in his own mind for long spells last season before being confident enough in this campaign to detail them in public after discovering the fixes.
Hagi arrives from Belgian football having made 19 appearances in his first six months since a €4million move from Viitorul Constanta to Genk. Of those, only six of them were league starts.
He landed in Glasgow just as the ink was drying on Barisic’s new Rangers contract to 2024.
It remains to be seen if Rangers, who have an option to buy as part of the agreement with Genk, will bring Hagi and Barisic together as team-mates for the long term.
For now, Barisic can provide firsthand experience of the survival guide at Ibrox and taking Hagi under his wing is on offer to the new signing.
When asked what presents the biggest challenge to a young foreign player coming to Rangers, Barisic replied: ‘For me, mentality.
‘When you are young, you still don’t have that character. Probably it is mentality that he needs to know, that every game here he needs to win.
‘And also that Scottish football is not beautiful football. It’s more aggressive and he will have to get used to that.
‘Of course, people in Croatia say I am different to when I left. Everyone knows that and recognises that. It’s not hard to see. It’s in everything — character, mentality, physicality.
‘I have already said to him — as everyone has — that if he needs some help, to ask. If he wants to speak about football, I can give him the advice he needs.’
In truth, Barisic mischievously draws a line where his generosity of spirit will end.
‘He will have to wait’ is the deadpan response to news that Hagi might fancy himself as the Rangers free-kick specialist.
That department was certainly a trademark of his brilliant father Gheorghe, who played for Barcelona and Real Madrid.
At 27, Barisic is too young to have witnessed Hagi Snr in his early-Nineties pomp and only caught a glimpse or two of his boy impressing at the Under-21 European Championships for Romania last summer, including against Croatia and Nikola Katic.
Both Katic and Barisic are settled in Scotland, the latter having courted transfer interest from Roma.
Putting pen to paper on that extended deal has discouraged the Serie A giants for now.
‘I’m very happy because it’s finished now, I’m more peaceful now,’ said Barisic, who has 12 assists and two goals in all competitions so far for Rangers in 2019/20.
‘Always, when there is a transfer window, there are a lot of stories, a lot of clubs mentioned in this moment. It’s easier when you sign your contract and you are clear.
‘Clubs like Roma having an interest in you is a very big thing for me. It’s nice and it’s interesting. They’re such a big club.
‘But I said to my agent there was no point. This wasn’t so hard for me because my full focus is here on Rangers.
‘I wanted, from the first day, to stay. I confirmed that by signing. For me, there was no doubt about that.
‘I feel I’ve helped with Rangers and our aim is to try to win the league. That’s a big motivation for me. It’s about how I feel here, around the city, the fans. I really feel very good.
‘The manager affected me a lot. He’s probably one of the reasons why I have stayed here.
‘Even in my tough times, the hard times, he stayed behind me, he believed in me with the staff. I feel here like it’s family.’
There will be a home comfort feel, then, for Barisic this summer when Croatia set up camp at St Andrews for Euro 2020.
From that base, they will travel south to Wembley for their first group game against England, before Hampden hosts their ties against Czech Republic then, potentially, Scotland.
Barisic, capped 12 times at senior level, laughed: ‘Staying in Scotland again! I haven’t been to St Andrews but I’ve heard it’s beautiful and I’ve told people from Croatia that.
‘I’ve said already that you don’t know what can happen because summer can be raining all the time here, too.
‘I played very well through qualification but it doesn’t mean anything. You must play well for your club to be in good shape for the Euros.
‘I need to play well during the second half of the season for Rangers to make sure I get there.
‘So there are two things — the first one is I want Scotland to qualify because I have a lot of friends here. It’s my second home.
‘But then I look to the other side — and playing against another home crowd isn’t good for us!
But, really, I would like Scotland to be there.’
Scottish football is not beautiful. It’s aggressive and he will have to get used to that