Rangers won’t sell Morelos on the cheap Wilson not keen to bend for post-virus marketplace
CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER
ROSS WILSON, the Rangers sporting director, last night insisted Alfredo Morelos won’t be sold for a cut-price fee this summer despite the economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis.
And Wilson admitted the Colombian striker could even remain at Ibrox for the foreseeable future due to the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the international transfer market.
The 23-year-old, who had scored 29 goals in the 2019/20 campaign before football was suspended last month, was widely expected to depart Scotland during the close season for a multi-million pound sum.
However, the ongoing shutdown of the game is causing serious financial problems for clubs across Europe, with many struggling to stay afloat without any match day income, and is expected to affect transfer fees.
But Wilson, who stressed he has continued to identify potential signing targets for manager Steven Gerrard during the shutdown, is adamant that Rangers will not accept any offers below their original valuation of Morelos.
“We definitely don’t want to be selling anybody on the cheap to use that phrase,” he said.
“I’m in touch with my counterparts in Europe all the time, particularly colleagues in the Premier League who I am used to working closely with.
“One of the biggest topics we speak about informally is what we think the transfer market will look like. When will that market open? No-one knows that. But equally what will it look like? My phone goes every day with lots of agents and the discussion is the same.
“The bottom line is we don’t know where the market will be but there is certainly no intention to sell anyone on the cheap. That’s for sure.”
He added: “But we have to see what this market looks like and who’s doing what. There are probably three schools of thought – that the market will be really low and crash out, that there will be no change at all, that I think is unrealistic, and the other that we’ll see some form of abnormality and change over the next two to four windows.
“I probably think the latter is the most likely. The market will certainly change, whether you are talking about player’s wages, transfer fees or agent fees. It will be one of the three things, but we genuinely won’t know until it gets underway.
“The market is driven by supply and demand and there is a domino effect. Until that machine starts to move, no-one will know the valuation of our players or anyone else’s for that matter.”
Asked if the repercussions of the pandemic could mean Morelos remains in Glasgow beyond the summer, Wilson said: “Possibly. When you don’t know what anything will look like, everything is on the table.
“Until this market opens and starts to move – whether you’re Rangers, Borussia Moenchengladbach or Crystal Palace – nobody’s going to know what the landscape is. I hope it will become much clearer.
“I’d be amazed if we’re still having a conversation like this in the middle of July and the answers are still the same.”