The terms of their deal will remain private - but it’s no secret the mysterious pact struck between Michael Beale and Borna Barisic is having exactly the effect both desired.
Rangers’ Croatian ace didn’t exactly spill all the beans on the man-to-man sit down he had with his new boss and the agreement they reached after returning from his World Cup adventure. But he peeled back just enough of the curtain to reveal an insight into how the Londoner’s man-management skills are proving every bit as vital as his much-vaunted coaching credentials to this Rangers resurgence.
During Gio van Bronckhorst’s tenure, the once-rampaging left-back seemed to be drifting towards the Ibrox exit. Under instruction to limit his forays forward, Barisic was denied the scope to show the full range of his talents he’d previously displayed as a key component in the title-winning team Steven Gerrard constructed hand in hand with Beale. All that changed with the Londoner’s return as gaffer and once again Barisic has been given licence to roam. The result is some of the 30-year-old’s most consistent performances in months.
The tactical tweak has been vital but so too has the handshake that followed their face-to-face after Barisic’s return from Qatar. “Yeah, I had a conversation,” explained the defender.
“It was like a 15 or 20-minute conversation about everything. Not only about football, we made some deals, that’s true.
"I have a very good relationship with him and that’s a big help to me. I feel good, I feel motivated, I feel comfortable.
"The way the manager gives me some things – I won’t tell you what, it’s behind the doors – means I am trying to give him it back on the pitch. I think that’s how it should be.”
Asked if the agreement could be broadly summed up along the lines that if Beale put his faith in Barisic, the former Osijek man vowed to deliver on that trust, he gave a knowing smile: “Let’s say it like that.
“I don’t want to talk too much about what the manager does in the situation where he’s the manager and I’m a player. But that’s true, he inspires me with his man management skills, absolutely.
“With the results and how we play, I can say that I am really enjoying it. I think we are all enjoying it, he has brought a lot of good things, the results show everything for now.
"We are 14 games unbeaten. We have all those wins and a draw. We have changed our style and this style probably suits us as a team and as players.
“It certainly suits me. I have more freedom and I think you can see how the system now suits the players, we train much better, much harder.
"When you do that it’s much easier to bring that onto the pitch. There is no doubt that in this moment we are in a good way.
"We are enjoying our football, I can only speak for myself and I am certainly enjoying my football more. I can say that. I am really enjoying it again.”
The gloom that has hung over Ibrox since the full, horrid extent of their mortifying Champions League campaign unfolded is finally starting to shift. With every passing game under Beale, the belief is being restored to a squad and a fanbase that feared the progress of their 2020-21 championship success had gone to waste.
Of course, there is still a lot of ground to be made up if Rangers - nine points behind their old foes in this year’s title race - are to recover their status as Scotland’s top dogs. But Barisic feels they’ve taken the first few steps towards that destination.
“It’s close,” he replied after being quizzed on how close he feels Gers are to reaching the consistency levels that saw them go an entire league campaign without defeat just over 18 months ago. “But it’s still not like that.
"I cannot say that we are in that mood. But how could we be after one or two months? But what I’ve said before is that I can feel we are on that train, you know?
"That we are very close to that point. As I said many times, results show everything but we are in a very good way just now.”
Victory at Hampden this Sunday and a Viaplay Cup triumph would be tangible evidence of the strides taken under the new manager. But even if Celtic do make it a sixth success in the tournament in the last seven years, Barisic reckons Rangers are still on the right path.
He said: “Sunday’s game is very important and it would be very nice if we win. But if we are talking about that process, it cannot happen overnight.
"In the longer-term, we are in a very good way and I think everyone can see that. Listen, the key on Sunday is to win the game.
"What it takes to win the game I will not talk about. That’s for the team only.
“I don’t want to talk about that a lot, but I think we know each other very well, we’ll try to explore their weaknesses. Listen, someone said nine points is big.
"And it is big. But some people look since Michael Beale came in and some people look more long-term, It depends how you look at it. We will see on Sunday how the game goes.”
