Daily Record wheels out fresh Ibrox legend to warn fans ahead of transfer despair
Football - Queen of the South v Rangers - Scottish Premiership Play-Off Quarter Final First Leg - Palmerston Park - 9/5/15 Rangers interim manager Stuart McCall Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Graham Stuart Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
Stuart McCall is softening up Ibrox fans for the cut-price departure of some star names.
With fees in Dembele Dollars being thrown around there is absolutely no interest outside of Scottish media circles in the squad that was put together by Steven Gerrard.
Alfredo Morelos has been at the centre of most speculation but when the source of interest from Sevilla is a PR release from a bookmaker you know things are bleak.
Similar tales have been spun about Joe Aribo and Ryan Kent. Inviting bids in the region of £5-6m might have smoked out some interest but £10m plus or the £25m fee that Celtic picked up for Kieran Tierney has ensured that clubs look elsewhere.
Transfer guru Ross Wilson has had a miserable time of it, bracing fans for bad news McCall told Daily Record readers that retaining three goal Ryan Kent has to be the priority:
I’d say there are more centre forwards out there than guys who can go and really open up a game the way Kent can. He’s such an exciting talent when games are tight. He’s a player you look to and think he can make something happen.
These days we don’t see so many wide players with that ability to come inside and play off the front. But looking across Europe, I think it’s probably a lot easier to find strikers who could come to Scotland and score 20 goals a season.
As good as Morelos has been, I’d think I’d choose Kent because he’s a match winner. As for Aribo, he’s a fantastic talent but he’s just played 70 games last season for club and country.
That’s my worry – the burnout factor. He had a purple patch at the start of the season where he was just fantastic. But for me he just hasn’t kicked on since coming back from the AFCON.
Bringing in £10-12m for Morelos and Aribo won’t go down well with loyal bears- unless Wilson can come up with replacements of the quality of Kyogo Furuhashi, Giorgos Giakoumas, Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley who cost Celtic less than £10m in transfer fees.
Over the last week Barry Ferguson, Alex Rae and Kenny Miller have all been brought in by the Record to discuss transfer tumbleweed.