SELLING MORELOS IS WORTH THE GAMBLE
DURING his three-year stay in Glasgow, Alfredo Morelos has always had one eye looking anxiously towards the exit door at Ibrox.
The Colombian striker has spoken at various junctures about his desire to move on and test himself at a higher level than what’s on offer in the SPFL.
Having fired in 20 goals before we had even reached Bonfire Night last season, Morelos was quoted about wanting to play in a ‘much better and more competitive league’ than the Scottish Premiership.
In his eyes, Ibrox has never been anything more than a stepping stone to one of Europe’s top leagues. Whether or not France falls into that category, mind you, is another matter.
So let’s not kid ourselves here. Rangers must have known this day was coming. There was always going to come a point when the player would start drawing up his own escape plan.
That’s exactly how this will look to Rangers fans. It now appears like Morelos has been angling for a move away from the club all summer.
From my own experience of how these things operate, it might look a bit ham-fisted for the buying club to agree personal terms with a player before they’ve agreed a fee with the selling club.
Yet I’ve heard many a story about these sort of conversations. Basically, the agent will say to the proposed buying club: ‘He’s looking for a four-year deal and ‘x’ amount in wages.’
The club will then either kibosh it immediately, or give it the green light to go and then negotiate a fee — and it seems like it’s been the latter of the two with Morelos and Lille.
For his camp to even have been entertaining these sort of conversations on the eve of such a monumental season will feel like a slap in the face to Rangers fans.
They’ve backed him to the hilt time and time again throughout all his disciplinary issues and it now seems like he could walk out on the club to join the fourth-best team in France.
Lille haven’t won a major trophy in almost a decade, so it’s not like he’d be joining a club steeped in success. It’s hardly the ‘dream move’ that we always hear players speak about, is it?
Steven Gerrard now has a major decision to make. With the new season just a matter of days away, he must now decide whether he wants to sell his prized asset.
Managers live and die by making these big calls when the chips are down — but selling Morelos is a gamble worth taking for Gerrard.
If they can get somewhere in the region of £20million for him and Gerrard is allowed to reinvest the cash, it might actually be the best thing that could happen to them.
Gerrard needs players he can trust and rely on as he bids to halt Celtic’s march to ten in a row. That, quite simply, was a box which Morelos was never going to tick.
He’s had umpteen chances. Yet, on Saturday night, he was spitting the dummy and storming up the tunnel after being subbed in a pre-season friendly with Coventry.
That’s the sort of petulant nonsense that will have Gerrard glad to see the back of him because, frankly, he’s been more bother than he’s worth.
The goals are only part of the equation. It’s the red cards and the rash of suspensions which will define his career at Ibrox if he does decide to join Lille.
How else are we to judge him? It’s certainly not by his trophy haul.
He hasn’t won anything and he’s failed to score a single, solitary goal against Celtic.
You can’t underestimate that Celtic hoodoo. It’s a key criteria for any Rangers player, yet Clint Hill has more goals against the Parkhead side than Morelos.
Perhaps his greatest contribution to Rangers is the fact that he’ll have secured them a tidy profit on the £1m they spent to sign him from HJK Helsinki in 2017.
Whatever money they get for him, it’s imperative that every penny of it is made available to Gerrard to plough back into the squad.
Like I said, Rangers will have known this day was coming. It shouldn’t be panic stations. They should have had a list of at least half-a-dozen potential new strikers — and that was before the interest in Morelos.
If he does go, then straight off the bat Rangers will have to spend money on getting two new strikers into the club — and they’ll have to be ready to hit the ground running. That’s a tough ask for any player at a club as big as Rangers. But there’s no honeymoon period on offer for any new signing. There’s simply too much at stake.
What this will do is test the recruitment department at Ibrox and the improvements that they claim to have made under sporting director Ross Wilson.
Gerrard made it abundantly clear following the victory over Coventry on Saturday night that he is actively seeking new signings and an injection of fresh blood into his squad.
It will be Rangers’ prerogative to squeeze every penny they possibly can out of Lille. From there, they dare not squander it.