Sometimes players leave clubs because they have fallen out of favour, sometimes it’s because they want a pay rise or move to a bigger club but, you will also hear about players wanting to change clubs for a new challenge.
Alfredo Morelos has said neither one way or the other what his intentions are this summer, Michael Beale revealing that he hasn’t told the manager that he wants to stay but that a decision has been shelved until the summer to let the Colombian’s football do the talking.
Speaking to GiveMeSport, Sky Sports journalist Michael Bridge hasn’t ruled out a new contract for Morelos and that Beale throwing down the gauntlet could be inspired management:
“Beale strikes me as a guy who’s going to rip up the squad.
“He’s going to have ideas, and he’s got a lot of contacts in the game.
“He will know what he wants, and he will know what Rangers lack.
“I feel Michael Beale has challenged Morelos: ‘you can do better, show me.’ He’ll be encouraged by what he saw at the weekend. He’s been a great servant to the club and personally, I’d expect him to move on in the summer but it’s not impossible he stays.”
I get Bridge’s point, if Morelos has grown bored, maybe a change of tactics, having a partner and other teammates closer to him with a more attacking setup might be enough to tempt him that things can be different under Beale. I don’t, however, think that we will see the massive changes that some have predicted. After all, he has already said that he would want to keep Ryan Jack and Ryan Kent.
There was a definite reaction when he came on for the last half hour against Motherwell, he created the chance for Malik Tillman and could easily have had a couple of goals himself – the criticism seems to have had a positive impact on his attitude.
Even if Morelos doesn’t stay, if he continues to show the sort of approach that he did at Fir Park, then he will remain a valuable member of the Rangers squad until the end of the season and will probably give himself more options in the process, everybody – hopefully – wins.