Saints set to launch £3m Arfield bid
McCoist backing veteran to lead Rangers’ line if Colombian leaves
SOUTHAMPTON are poised to test Rangers’ resolve with a £3million bid for Scott Arfield. The 30-year-old midfielder bagged his first career hat-trick at Motherwell last Sunday to cap an impressive first season in Glasgow. A lifelong fan of the Ibrox club, he fulfilled his ambition by penning a four-year deal last summer after leaving Burnley under freedom of contract. It remains to be seen if a quick return to the English game would appeal at this juncture, but Saints appear willing to at least ask the question by tabling a formal offer. Arfield started at Falkirk where Ross Wilson, now Southampton’s director of football operations, was cutting his teeth as player-liaison manager.
Sportsmail understands Wilson has recommended Arfield to manager Ralph Hasenhuttl, who has agreed that a player of his versatility would be good business at that price.
FOR Ally McCoist, Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos remains an infuriating but enthralling enigma.
On the one hand, the Ibrox icon believes the Colombian could yet end this season with 35-plus goals and being named the Ladbrokes Premiership Player of the Year.
But the all-time record Rangers scorer also feels the 22-year-old’s market value has dropped during this trophyless season with each of the five red cards that have cost his team so dearly.
Manager Steven Gerrard may face a decision whether to cash in on his gifted-but-irascible star asset this summer should wealthy suitors appear.
But as McCoist watched Jermain Defoe and hat-trick hero Scott Arfield combine to take Motherwell apart at Fir Park on Sunday in the absence of the team’s suspended talisman, he saw a potential solution to life after Morelos.
‘Can Jermain Defoe be the main man if Morelos leaves Rangers? I don’t think there is any doubt about that,’ said McCoist. ‘Steven Gerrard would still need to strengthen. But if Morelos was to go, you could easily have the option of having Defoe up front with Arfield playing off him. ‘Defoe still has a lot to offer. He is a great player and there is more to his game than just finishing, although he clearly can finish. ‘I met Jermain a fortnight ago on a flight up from London to Glasgow. We didn’t get much time to talk because he was in the posh seats at the front and I was in the talkSPORT cheap seats at the back. Times have changed! ‘But we had a chat and he’s a really nice guy who is clearly enjoying playing for Rangers. ‘He has handled not playing brilliantly when he’s been out of the team. He has not been a Billy Big Time — anything but. ‘And what we saw at the weekend did not surprise me. ‘Put the ball in front of him and he will finish. But his display on Sunday was another string to the team’s bow with Jermain creating the goal that led to Arfield’s hat-trick. ‘Arfield will make runs all day because he has a great engine and he can finish as well. He is the one Rangers midfielder who is always willing to go forward and Gerrard gave him the freedom to go up and play with Defoe.
‘It worked really well and it gives Rangers another option.’
Morelos is currently halfway through a fourgame ban he received after elbowing Celtic captain Scott Brown off the ball during the recent Old Firm match.
In an ideal world, McCoist believes Rangers would be smart to give Morelos a jolt by leaving him out of the starting XI on his return from the ban. But the Ibrox legend accepts that Gerrard does not have the luxury of sidelining his star player.
‘Should Morelos automatically come back in? I would have to say no,’ said McCoist. ‘I would hope it is the case in any Rangers team that no one just comes back into the side if you lose your place through lack of form or lack of discipline, as it was in Morelos’ case.
‘The hardest way to hit him would be to drop him because that would be the biggest shock to his system. And, from what I saw at the weekend at Motherwell, it is a far bigger decision than it was.
‘Ideally, if Rangers were 14 points clear, for example, your decision to leave him out is easier.
‘You can then say: “Look, you are not a shoo-in to start every week if you get sent off so many times”. But Rangers are not in a position to do that.’
Despite his disciplinary record, McCoist still believes there will be managers willing to take a chance on the Colombian this summer.
‘His market value has to have dipped,’ he argued. ‘If you’ve got, say, a 38-game season and you’ve got a striker who has been sent off five times, then he could miss up to ten games of that season.
‘But you know what football is like. There will be 100 coaches willing to take that gamble.
‘A lot of managers and coaches will think they can sort him. It’s an ego thing. But his disciplinary record depreciates his value, in my opinion.
‘When he has played, the vast majority of the time, he has been excellent.
‘His goals have been brilliant, but there is a level of immaturity about him on the park.
‘The Old Firm incident was bordering on the ridiculous. Wee Broony wound him up and, if he’s daft enough to take the bait, it’s his own fault. He let himself — and his team — down.
‘He’s been sent off five times now, so there has to be a point where he starts learning.
‘I’d have hoped it would have been well before he was sent off five times. But if he hasn’t learned from that act of stupidity in the Old Firm match, then there’s no chance for him.
‘You just hope that the penny drops. It has to drop now. Steven Gerrard can’t wait any longer.’