Over the course of two months Alfredo Morelos has been downgraded from a £20m striker into a £250 banger by the Daily Record.
During the last nine transfer windows readers of the Glasgow based publisher have been kept informed of Europe wide interest in the striker with moonbeams peaking during season 2019/20 with talk of bids reaching £40m, or two Moussa Dembele’s.
Speculation has ebbed and flowed but without doubt, at Ibrox one of the most in demand strikers in the game was doing his stuff.
As ever the realty was ignored. Morelos is still waiting to make his Champions League debut. His international career is sporadic, in the summer of 2019 he was left out of a 40 man squad for Copa America, last summer he played for nine minutes in the same competition as Colombia reached the semi-finals.
Alfredo Morelos is a like a rusty Rangers old banger who has reached end of Ibrox road and club will struggle to find buyer | David McCarthyhttps://t.co/A43zg1FEeY
— Daily Record Sport (@Record_Sport) August 24, 2022
Playing when he fancied it Morelos has been well protected by Scottish referees, during the lockdown season there were two retrospective red cards in just over a month but with his alleged price tag criticism never reached the mainstream.
Yesterday that all changed. The striker has been hung out to dry, virtually worthless with a questionable attitude and fitness issues with this season coming to a five week halt in November. From December 1 he can sign a pre-contract deal anywhere he wishes.
Spilling the beans to their readers, today’s Daily Record reveals:
The Colombian missed almost five months through injury at the tail end of last season and returning has looked as rusty as the first car I bought for £250 back in Nineteen Canteen. That’s not just down to being injured. That’s a lack of willingness or desire to get back to optimum fitness as quickly as possible. That’s mental, not physical.
You don’t need to be a nutritionist or sports scientist to see the timber under the too-tight blue shirt as Morelos has ambled onto the pitch in a series of substitute appearances since the start of the campaign. This is a player who is not adhering to the standards required and when he compounded that felony by leaving his team-mates in the lurch at Easter Road on Saturday by being sent off 12 minutes after coming on – with Rangers already down to 10 men – then action had to be taken.
It’s interesting that some outlets were clearly briefed by the club that the decision to axe Morelos from the squad that travelled to Eindhoven was taken by Gio van Bronckhorst after consultation with the leadership group within the players. That’s not a weakness on behalf of the manager. In fact, it’s the polar opposite. Who knows, perhaps the likes of James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, Scott Arfield and Steven Davis even approached the manager and told him they’d had enough of Morelos’ attitude and lack of application.
Two months ago, on June 23, the Record were telling their army of readers:
Rangers have reportedly received a £7million bid from Sevilla for Alfredo Morelos as he faces a decision on his future. The Ibrox star has entered the final year of his contract and is yet to agree an extension, having last penned a new deal back in March 2019.
The 26-year-old forward missed the final stages of last season – including the Europa League and Scottish Cup Finals – after undergoing surgery on a thigh injury. He’s been hard at work in rehab but speculation continues to swirl around his future with Rangers also in the market for another striker.
Sevilla have been credited with an interest in the past and now Spanish media claim they’ve tested the water with an opening bid for the Colombian star. El Chiringuito TV report the La Liga side have made an official proposal to Rangers but that the fee is likely to fall well short of the club’s valuation.
Until he leaves the payroll Morelos is going to cast a shadow over van Bronckhorst, if the manager doesn’t deliver the goods he’ll soon be the one getting the crusty old banger treatment.
The classic openerhttps://t.co/rdqg4WZlWr
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) August 24, 2022
Yeeeeeeeeah, sure.https://t.co/2S0MaSI4wE
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) August 24, 2022
Short shrift?https://t.co/5qFc57n6sT
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) August 24, 2022
Lol it is Morelos getting it in the neck just now as the klub the team and the manager as do the fans need a scapegoat he fits in perfectly here for that.
Should things continue to worse fo| them they can no longer blame FATSO as ain’t on the pitch and that’s when Gio FANNY will be the target and then the DUFF players.
If this was celtic scotlands media shame would have a field day. A manager plays an unfit overweight player with attitude problems then three days later asks some of his players about dropping him and yet some how the media shame are telling us it is not a sign of weakness on the managers part ? Really ?. We have without a doubt the worst sports media in the world. Scotlands shame.
How is it that their players leave for undisclosed fee but it was banded about his worth what a load of crap who put that price on him was it the company who makes the toy money for monopoly.
If this was celtic scotlands media shame would have a field day. A manager plays an unfit overweight player with attitude problems then three days later asks some of his players about dropping him and yet some how the media shame are telling us it is not a sign of weakness on the managers part ? Really ?. We have without a doubt the worst sports media in the world. Scotlands shame.