For two years Daily Record readers have been told that Alfredo Morelos was a world class striker.
In January 2018 mystery clubs in China were putting in offers of £10m for the Colombian goal-slinger, recently the price has rocketed to between £40m and £50m.
Goals have flowed domestically and in the Europa League, Henrik Larsson’s records have been smashed by Morelos.
There was, however, one fly in the ointment. Alfie hadn’t scored against Celtic.
Whether it was Craig Gordon or Scott Bain he just couldn’t find the net. In ten appearances there wasn’t a single ‘Old Firm’ goal to decorate his glowing CV.
Yesterday at Hampden was the day to put that to right. Score against Celtic and inflate his value even further. And then along came Fraser Forster.
Whatever Morelos tried Forster stopped it. At the final whistle their readers discovered the brutal truth, this morning the Daily Record didn’t hold back on the fall guy for failure.
If there are a hundred ways to win a trophy then Celtic probably thought they experienced the lot. And then along came yesterday.
Because this was the day that Alfredo Morelos won them their latest piece of silverware during 90 minutes of unrelenting, dizzying drama which, as far as the crestfallen Colombian is concerned, deteriorated into the ultimate car crash of a cup final.
In theory this was supposed to be the day the free scoring phenomenon scrawled his name all over Hampden Park and perhaps even bring Celtic’s historic trophy sweep shuddering to a halt all on his own.
Well years from now when they dig this one out of the archives the memories of Morelos will probably come flooding back right enough. Just for all the wrong reasons.
With a £10m funding black hole and ‘many millions’ to be paid out to Sports Direct next month the plunge in value of Morelos couldn’t have happened at a worse possible time.
In Forster and Neil Lennon Celtic have heroes and men that know how to win.
