There is never a dull day with Alfredo Morelos at the club and, whether he likes it or not, Michael Beale will continue to face questions about the Colombian’s future between now and the end of the season.
Reports at the weekend suggested that the 26-year old had already agreed a pre-contract deal with Sevilla, however, those rumours were said to be wide of the mark, the Gers gaffer confirming as much in today’s press conference.
What is interesting though is what he said when asked if the striker had intimated that he wants to stay at Rangers, as reported by The Rangers Review:
“No, we said we’re going to concentrate on the rest of the season. Stay committed to each other and talk in the summer, and that’s fine. I’m happy with that. He reiterated that there’s no truth in the Seville situation whatsoever.”
It’s surprising to hear Morelos, or Beale, not suggest that he is happy here or loves the club etc. The narrative does seem to hint that he already has one foot out the door. The boss then went on to give more detail on the Sevilla report and revealed that he had sat down with Morelos to clarify his current thinking:
“Yeah, we spoke obviously after the game on Sunday and there’s no truth in that. So I was pretty cool about it beforehand anyway because we have such a strong relationship and we’re both committed to each other until the end of the season.
“We’ll sit down and have a chat then and if Alfredo’s here and offered a new contract, great. If he moves on, he’s our record goal scorer in Europe.
“We’ve had a lot of big days together and he’ll get a hug and on he goes, but at this moment in time, we’re just focused on the games ahead. There’s no truth in the situation with Seville.”
So, we have exactly the same situation that we had with Connor Goldson. This sort of thing is happening more often in football, in the initial years of the pre-contract deal, players would sign up with new clubs in the January then see the rest of the season out, however, the trend seems to be shifting to waiting until the end of the season to see what offers come in.
Unfortunately, it is a side of football that is here to stay and Rangers, as with every other club, has to get used to it.