NOW LILLE CAN TURN SCREW OVER MORELOS MOVE
THE saga has now dragged on for over a month. But, if Lille return with a fresh offer for Alfredo Morelos this week, they’ll have renewed confidence that they can finally seal the deal.
Rangers are no longer operating from a position of strength. Their negotiating hand has been weakened significantly now that Morelos has effectively downed tools at Ibrox.
Dropped from the match-day squad for the weekend victory over Kilmarnock, it is now a matter of public record that the Colombian striker has well and truly spat the dummy.
Steven Gerrard explained after the Europa League defeat to Bayer Leverkusen a couple of weeks ago that Morelos’ head had been turned amid ongoing transfer speculation.
Gerrard then followed that on Saturday by insisting it was actually an ‘easy’ decision to drop him for the win over Killie.
In a perfect world for Gerrard, the back-page headlines would have been about Kemar Roofe scoring his first goal in a result which kept Rangers top of the league.
Instead, the main narrative was about a player who never even kicked a ball. That’s all Morelos is to Rangers now — a disruptive sideshow.
It’s a drama Gerrard can do without. From his point of view, he’ll be desperate for the club to get rid of a player whose attitude has stunk the place out.
But here’s the thing. It’s now public knowledge that Rangers have an unhappy player on their hands. And not just any run-of-the-mill squad player — he’s their prized asset.
The ideal scenario would be to have Morelos fully fit and banging in the goals. They would then be able to get top dollar for him.
But there’s no chance of that happening now. What he’s doing is denying Rangers the chance to get maximum value from any potential sale.
It’s Lille who now hold all the aces because there’s no chance Rangers can just afford to let him rot in the reserves for the rest of the season.
He’s contracted at Ibrox until 2023. The longer he sits twiddling his thumbs on the sidelines, the more his value is only going to decrease.
It’s such a selfish way for him to treat a manager and club who have backed him time and again from the minute he arrived in Scotland.
Throughout all the various red cards and disciplinary problems Morelos had last season, Gerrard defended him as much as he possibly could.
But the landscape has changed dramatically since then. The reason Gerrard defended him so much was because of how massively reliant Rangers were on his goals.
They were almost a one-man show at times. Whereas now, there are two new strikers in the building in Roofe and Cedric Itten.
Other players like Ryan Kent are now beginning to chip in with a few goals. Gerrard is not handcuffed to Morelos in the same way he was last season.
He’d be quite happy for the club to wash their hands of him, take the cash from Lille, and move him on — because it’s bound to be having a disruptive effect on the dressing room.
Kent is the perfect example of how a player should handle any off-field speculation. He’s got his head down and he’s scoring important goals.
When you look at his attitude compared to Morelos, it’s night and day. Leeds United are trying to sign Kent but, to me, he looks fully focused on being a Rangers player just now.
The reality is that, from the moment he arrived at Ibrox in 2017, Morelos has never viewed Rangers as anything more than a stepping stone.
Having fired 20 goals before we had even reached Bonfire Night last season, Morelos told everyone he wanted to play in a ‘much better and more competitive league’ than the Scottish Premiership.
That must be hard for Rangers fans to hear when they’ve constantly backed him throughout all of his misdemeanours.
That applies tenfold to the manager because, ultimately, it’s his job that’s on the line. Morelos owed Gerrard a bit of loyalty but he’s ended up mugging him off.
I don’t blame Gerrard for taking a firm stance and making it public knowledge like he did with his comments on Saturday.
He knows the club have to find a swift resolution to this. They can’t allow it to rumble on.
They’re unlikely to get the bumper £20million-plus they were hoping for. It’s now all about cutting their losses and limiting the damage.