Even Rangers biased media have had enough of Morelos-Gerrard

The tide and Rangers friendly media are turning hard against Alfredo Morelos and his petulant moods. Steven Gerrard is getting some of the blame too. Operation sell, sell, sell is underway.

It must be time to get the Ibrox fans agreeing Morelos must be sold. There was a point where fans would have been distraught at the sale of their top scorer. Events in 2020 and quite possibly an urgent need to attract a top fee for him have changed all that. Media stories like we are seeing now will have fans more onside with a sale. It’s not the best of times for positive PR from Ibrox, the club crest could soon be looking as battered as it does on a Castore kit!

In a strong opinion based article in the Daily Record, reporter Keith Jackson let’s rip at both Morelos and Gerrard.

Part of Jackson’s point seems to be that most people knew Morelos was trouble for some time, so why didn’t Gerrard act sooner? Quite harsh when the media were puffing up the players importance, value and abilities on a regular basis. To the extent that his agent was able to demand and get better contracts at the club.

The article talks at length about the way Morelos has behaved over his time at Rangers, it isn’t complimentary and it’s now becoming hard hitting. But it is as if the reporter and paper have only just woken up and realised all this. It’s been apparent to many for a long time, though it seemed like a case of the emperor’s new clothes as far as anyone close to Ibrox is concerned.

The paper does get bang up to date though with reports of a significant moment last week:

"“A flashpoint last Friday afternoon which has probably ended his (Morelos) Rangers career.”"

The Record tells us that when the player became clear he wasn’t being selected for Saturday’s match against Kilmarnock there was a mix of downing tools, tantrums, toys flying out of prams and so on. Which, combined with all the signs of a major huff as he trudged off the Livingston carpet when subbed in the previous game, all led to a bit of a standoff:

"“After throwing another incredible sulk on the training pitch his representative followed up with a phone call to the club’s hierarchy during which it was agreed by both parties that Morelos would be best left out of Gerrard’s squad entirely.”"

According to Jackson, Gerrard has overindulged the player and should have acted much sooner.  Gerrard himself continued on the theme of wanting players who are hungry to play, but still made a point this time re Morelos:

"“If I see people aren’t focused and they take their eye off the ball and they’re not really hungry to get this club results, then I have to make these decisions.”“Alfredo made it easy for me this week.”"

In a second report based article in the Daily Record there is more talk of selling the player. This seems likely to be aimed at driving up more bids and their value. But talk of ill discipline and poor behaviour combined with uninspiring performances on the pitch is highly unlikely to attract bidders.

Perhaps that’s the problem, maybe there haven’t been many bids, maybe some of the talk has been just PR to get interest. What if other clubs are wide awake on all these points and either not interested or not at the silly prices being reported?

In addition to the player’s situation the financial aspects are likely to be significant. All clubs are affected by hefty hits to income currently, Rangers do seem to have an unexplained ability to find ways to still spend big on players and have already brought in the likely replacements for Morelos. You’d think they’d want, and may even urgently need, whatever they can scrape up in a deal for the player fairly urgently. Surely the wheels are now in motion to make that happen, someone will buy, but at what price.