RANGERS BOOST AS MORELOS PENS DEAL
Morelos is delighted to extend his Ibrox contract
ALFREDO MORELOS has handed Rangers a huge lift for tomorrow’s clash with Celtic after penning a lucrative new deal until 2021. The Colombian (right) was the subject of a number of multi-million pound bids from Chinese club Beijing Rehne in the transfer window, with Sportsmail last month revealing plans for the 17-goal striker to be
granted a hefty pay rise to keep him at Ibrox. Talks between the 21-year-old striker’s agents and Rangers paid off last night when he signed a deal which sees his current £7,000-a-week contract ripped up.
‘I am very happy to have signed a new contract with Rangers,’ said the summer signing from HJK Helsinki.
‘I know how important the club is in Scotland, how many titles that it has won and how much history that it has. I am really happy here and I am working hard for the team.
‘I love it when the fans show their support to me and sing to me. I’m really grateful for their support and I want to repay them with performances on the pitch.’
Delighted to end months of speculation over the player’s future, interim boss Graeme Murty has challenged Morelos to show why Rangers turned down bids in excess of £8million for his services.
‘We are delighted that Alfredo has committed his future to the club today,’ said Murty.
‘He is a very talented player and one that we know we can work with to make even better.’
Morelos suffered a day of frustration in the Scottish Cup quarter-final victory against Falkirk last weekend.
However, Murty believes the striker now has a golden opportunity to silence the Celtic supporters, who were sceptical over the reports of Chinese bids last month.
‘I’m really confident that Alfredo will play with confidence and, hopefully, get an opportunity,’ he said. ‘If he does, I’m confident he can stick one away.
‘He’s got high standards. He knows how good he can be and when he falls below that standard, he gets frustrated with himself.
‘This is an opportunity for him, and the other members of the squad, to prove that the business we have done in January, and previous to that, has been good.
‘That it’s helped us advance as a football club. I’m a firm believer that it has — and this game is the biggest test of that.’
Rangers enter tomorrow’s must-win clash at Ibrox with a chance to narrow the gap on their bitter city rivals to three points.
And Murty believes it will mark the first proper contest between Rangers and Celtic in years.
Buoyed by six straight wins in the league and Scottish Cup, the interim Ibrox boss says his team’s progress can be gauged by the fact that no-one has tipped Celtic to win by a large scoreline.
‘This is the game where people are talking about “the game” as a contest rather than it being onesided,’ he said.
‘It’s not about whether it’ll be six, seven or eight goals like before the first game I did at Parkhead. It was also about the fact we didn’t have a manager. But people are now talking about “the game”, which I think is indicative of the journey we’ve been on and the distance we’ve come as a squad and a club.
‘I think we’ve moved in the right direction. The fact this game is generating so much interest shows that in a good light.’
Russell Martin is almost certainly out with a back injury, although Murty will give the Scotland defender time to prove his fitness.
‘We’re doing everything we possibly can to get him ready and we’ll give him as long as he needs.
‘I think with the magnitude of the game and the scale of people’s perception of the game, every single player wants to be involved, they are desperate to be involved.
‘We have to give them the respect and the time they might need to get themselves ready, and if it takes a little bit longer we’ll give the guys that.’
Confident of calling on fit-again Jamie Murphy and Declan John after the pair came through a closed-doors game in midweek, Murty believes his side’s revival is putting the Old Firm fixture back on the map.
‘It doesn’t need anything from me. This game stands alone in terms of what it means. It stands alone in world football and the interest in it, around the globe, will never wane,’ he added.
‘What we have to do is make sure these games are meaningful between now and the end of the season.’
After tomorrow’s game, Rangers and Celtic are expected to meet twice in a week, in the Scottish Cup semi-final on April 15, then again a week later in the league.
Brendan Rodgers has yet to lose to the Ibrox side, but Murty believes his new signings have improved Rangers since the 0-0 draw at Parkhead on December 30.
‘I think we’re a different team,’ he said. ‘Our style of play is different and the threats we pose are different. I would suggest we have different attributes that could trouble Celtic.
‘It’s about making sure we take what was really, really good about the display at Parkhead and add to that our attacking blend and make sure we are clinical at both ends.
‘If we do that, we have people who can put in strong performances and put us in a good place.’