Alfredo Morelos’s Rangers future isn’t going to be sorted until the end of the season, Michael Beale told us as much last week. The player, manager and club have agreed to shelve any talks until then and focus on the importance of winning games and, hopefully, silverware.
What we have seen though, since the Gers gaffer revealed that he is looking for a new striker in the summer, is an increase in speculation as to who we might be looking at and who Beale “has his eye on“.
This week, another name was added to the list which now stands at four, each with different qualities and considerably different price tags.
Here we look at the four names as things stand.
Josh Maja
Currently at Bordeaux and out of contract in the summer with 13 goals and four assists to his name in Ligue 2, has Premier League and Ligue 1 experience and makes a lot of sense financially. Currently on circa £20,000 per week, more than half of what Morelos is said to want to stay.
Joel Piroe
Valued last summer at £20million by Swansea City, the former Netherlands youth international will probably still command a decent fee even though he will be entering the last 12-months of his contract, 45 goal contributions in two seasons make him an attractive option for a lot of teams.
Nikola Krstovic
Kemar Roofe, without the injuries, Alfredo Morelos and Antonio Colak all rolled into one, the 22-year old Montenegro international is destined for big things and now is the time to buy because his next move will be to a top five league and a team with much deeper pockets. Krstovic has 23 goals and four assists in 28 games in Slovakia’s top flight. Remember the name.
Petar Ratkov
The teenager is exactly the type of signing that we should have scattered throughout the squad; young, promising, physically and technically impressive and the sort that could make an impact before being developed and sold at a profit further down the line. A 6ft 4inch Serbian who can play anywhere on the front line – what’s not to like?
I still think we will see two new faces to add to the forward line in the summer, one guaranteed starter and one “project” or cheaper option, could it be two out of these four? We’ll have to wait and see.