Rangers keen to extend Borna Barisic’s contract as Roma hover

Borna Barisic is Croatia's No 1 left-back says Steven Gerrard. Picture: Alan Harvey / SNS

Ibrox manager Steven Gerrard has confirmed that there is interest from the Serie A side following the left-back’s impressive form this season.

The Croatian internationalist still has two-and-a-half years left on the deal he signed when joining from Osijek last summer and Rangers are in no rush to cash during the January transfer window.

“That’s true,” Gerrard said of the reports regarding Roma. “There has been interest in Borna and there has been for a long time, even when his form wasn’t in a place where it is right now.

“Everyone respects the fact you’re talking about the Croatian No 1 left back and they’re a team that has massive respect around the world.

“We bought Barisic for a reason – because we felt we could get him to the place where he is now because of what we’d seen. It wasn’t just the two Osijek games against Rangers [in last season’s Europa League], we’d watched him for quite a while and we watched a lot of games around that time. It’s no surprise he’s in this form.

“We have no ambition to move him on or to sell him. He is the same as every other player at Rangers. They all have a price, of course they do. I’m not going to completely shut it down, but he’s a player I want 100 per cent, that we need 100 per cent and we don’t want him to go anywhere. I’m in contact with and I’m close enough to the agent, we’ve had dialogue over the last couple of weeks.

“We realise where he is with his contract and I would say there is low level talks in terms of trying to get him to extend here because we are pleased with the job he’s done so far.”

Barisic is not the only one of Gerrard’s players that has been attracting attention in recent weeks – midfielder Glen Kamara has been linked with several English sides.

Gerrard is determined to retain his key men for the title race but is prepared for all eventualities in the January window.

He said: “I think there is a lot of interest in a lot of our players at the moment, looking at the scouting list that comes to our games. There has been for quite some time and I don’t think that is going to change between now and the end of the season.

“None of the players will be going anywhere. I’m more in a position where I want to extend and reward, rather than sell. As I have said before, every single player has a price. We are prepared in all the positions if a crazy offer lands and the board come to me and say: ‘This is crazy, we have to do it.’

“But we don’t want to sell any of our players. If anything, moving forward, we want to add more quality.”