Rangers have blown hot and cold this season, and that inconsistency has really hurt them in their race to stop Celtic from winning their eighth consecutive league title. However, they once again showed that they can dismantle their opponent on the day as they handed Kilmarnock a 5-0 defeat in the Scottish Cup tie recently. Alfredo Morelos bagged an impressive four goals and he is that much closer to hitting the 30-goal mark with quite a bit of the season still left to play.
Former Rangers and Chelsea striker Derek Johnstone believe that Morelos is becoming Rangers’ £20m man and he believes that the Bears will find it hard to keep hold of him in the summer. He wrote for the Evening Times and said, ”It is going to be difficult to keep him in the summer, that is for sure because he will want to go and play in the Premier League against the top clubs and for the large salaries.”
”If you look at Moussa Dembele going for £18million last summer, then Rangers can really set a high asking price for Morleos. He has scored more goals than Dembele did at this stage of the season, so you have got to be thinking of £20million or so. The more goals he scores, the more interest he will attract.”
The striker attracted interest (The Scotsman) from French outfit Nice in January and Rangers had reportedly turned down an £8m offer. It seems likely that Rangers will also want somewhere close to £20m for him, but we still doubt whether the clubs from top divisions would come in with such hefty offers at the moment.
Morelos’ temperament is one of his biggest downfalls and any club signing him would consider him to be a gamble. The media too usually portray him as a villain and that image would also make clubs sceptical about spending the big bucks on him.
There is no doubt about his goal-scoring prowess and at just 22, he looks like a complete package. Derek Johnstone is one of the few players who managed to hit the 30 goal mark with Rangers along with Ally McCoist, Mark Hateley, Kris Boyd and Marco Negri in nearly 50 years. On current form, Morelos is very likely to be added to that list as he has 27 goals to his name in all competitions so far.
However, the worrying factor is he has 15 yellow cards and four red cards to his name which is an abysmal record for a striker. Therefore we still feel the Colombian needs to mature a bit before he receives a big money offer. However, that can play in Rangers’ favour as they might be able to keep hold of him for another year.
