What to do with Alfredo Morelos? Whilst many Scottish Premiership defenders still aren’t too sure, the situation at Ibrox will be far more relaxed.
As we are all aware at this point, the Colombian international is now within the last 12 months of his existing contract.
The priority is to get an extension penned by the 26-year old but it is unclear at this stage if that will happen, leading to the current impasse and speculation on a move.
If no deal, obvious Rangers will receive any realistic offers that arrive for the club’s record goalscorer in European competition. Given that he is into his last year, any bid is not going to be the true value of what he would ‘normally’ be sold for. If this situation plays out, so be it.
Rangers can’t afford to lose Morelos as well as Ryan Kent and Joe Aribo under freedom of contract, with the latter most likely to leave Glasgow in the coming weeks. If one player does run down his deal, that can be managed. It happens in football and isn’t specifically down to bad management, with other factors in play.
Losing all three for nothing would be an issue though!
Former Rangers striker Kenny Miller has has his say. He believes that Rangers will be lucky to get £6million in this window, as told to Go Radio:
“I don’t think they will be happy with that, but that is probably the maximum they are going to get.”
“If he can score the goals that get Rangers to the Champions League, then absolutely keep him, but there is no guarantee of that. It has been one league out of five, and one cup out of 10 for Alfredo. There is no guarantee that he will score the goals to bring that type of success.
“But I firmly believe that Alfredo holds all the cards. I believe he loves it here in Glasgow and scoring in front of that Ibrox crowd.”
Dilemma
Miller did add that Rangers should do their best to get the striker signed up on longer terms, this Summer. That is the plan but if it doesn’t happen, the lesser of two evils is to keep him for the 22/23 season.
£6million would be a tough ask to replace what Alfredo Morelos brings to Rangers and he will be needed early on, particularly for those crucial Euro qualifiers. Everything could change if a serious bid lands, with the likes of Sevilla interested, but interested clubs will be all too aware that they can enter pre-contract talks with El Bufalo come the turn of the new year.
Sign, sell relatively high or let his deal run – tell us what you think on Twitter – @vitalrangers