RANGERS will look to tie Borna Barisic down to an extended deal in a bid to fend off an approach from Roma.

Boss Steven Gerrard has confirmed that the interest from the Serie A giants is concrete after left-back Barisic has emerged as one of the mainstays of his Gers side this term.

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 in this month.

“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 number one 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, 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 and midfielder Glen Kamara has been linked with several English sides.

Gerrard is determined to retain his key men for the title race but the 39-year-old is prepared for all eventualities in the January window.

Gerrard 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 selling players.

“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.”

“I am prepared and the recruitment are prepared in every area just in case. But we don’t want to sell any of our players. If anything, moving forward, we want to add more quality.”