Since signing for Rangers in 2017, Alfredo Morelos has never been far from the headlines on both the front and back pages. A player who has frustrated as often as he has been the hero, the match winner and the talisman of a side that consistently punched above its weight in Europe.
El Bufalo’s current position has almost gone full circle in that he now finds himself playing second fiddle although it isn’t for reasons of inexperience and inconsistency but for attitude and fitness – a far cry from the player that we couldn’t find a way to win without.
Speaking to Darrell Currie on the Currie Club, former Gers assistant Michael Beale was speaking about the enigmatic striker in an interview covering his time at the club, when asked by the BT presenter specifically about Morelos, the man behind the panto villain, he said:
“The boy that you see behind the scenes wasn’t the one they were portraying. He’s a laugher and a joker and he trains every day when other players wouldn’t and his temperament and training when we were there was very, very good.
“There were some other things around it but he was a young boy and when you realise where he’s come from and the journey to get to Scotland and the way the media was with him in the first period, I think a lot of it was to protect himself. And he’s matured a lot.
“And there were a lot of people around Europe asking about him.”
It’s interesting to hear Beale talk about the interest from around the continent when you consider what was revealed by Kieran Maguire on the This is Ibrox podcast about English clubs being reticent to make an offer due to his apparent attitude to fitness.
At his best, he is a one-man forward line and can cause carnage, at his worst, he must be infuriating. It’s got nothing to do with the manager either because every one of them in their time at the club has seen the duality of the Colombian international.
We’ve all seen the charity work that he does and heard how popular with teammates he is. Flawed genius might be a bit strong, but it’s not a wholly inappropriate way to describe him. A player who goes from undroppable to intolerable. Let’s hope he rediscovers the form that makes him the former once again.