Alfredo Morelos

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Alfredo Morelos

Alfredo Morelos is leaving Rangers. The 24-year old has agreed terms with Lille and once the French giants and Rangers agree a fee the Colombian’s lively time in Glasgow will be at an end.

Where on earth do Ibrox Noise start with assessing the most controversial (successful) player we’ve had since Paul Gascoigne?

When Morelos first arrived, we compared him with Dembele, and got predictably lampooned by some of our audience (incidentally probably the same ones claiming this story was BS this morning) who mocked the idea.

And admittedly his early European and SPL appearances weren’t promising – sluggish, unenthusiastic, and cumbersome – his debut in Luxembourg was frankly abysmal.

But then he started scoring a few, and started to look like a very decent acquisition indeed for the £800,000.

And so we really did look like we had our own Dembele, but with two big caveats:

  • From Beijing Renhe’s bid onwards, Morelos was clear – he didn’t see his long term future at Ibrox. He wanted the PL.
  • He just could not for the life of him score against Celtic, even with an open goal gaping.

For two years Rangers fans have had to deal with the circus of division Alfredo Morelos has caused, most of which was his own fault.

From getting sent off repeatedly and letting his team mates down, to scoring wonder goals in the SPL and Europe, it’s been a rollercoaser of emotion with this guy – but never once has it ever truly felt like he was ever happy here.

Many will point to the racist abuse he disgracefully suffered, and they’re right to make a big deal of it But it’s very interesting is it not that Tavernier, Goldson, Kamara, Aribo, Coulibaly, Ejaria and Ojo didn’t suffer any?

All black players, but none having to deal with that abuse. This is not to justify it, but to explain that Morelos’ unpleasant football personality brought a lot of aggression upon him, much of it unacceptable, but all of it his own making. This doesn’t defend racism, but it does bring it into context that other players of colour in our team haven’t suffered much if at all.

As for his ability? A world class player with a terrible mind, Morelos’ ability to hurt defenders and bully them and score goals is up there potentially with the great strikers of the world. Just like world class players who moved south from here and proved themselves, he has all the tools in his physical locker to rise to the top.

But mentally speaking he’s a bomb waiting to go off. Gets sent off, gets involved, and when he’s not in the mood he shows it.

And Rangers haven’t seen him in the mood since late last year.

It does leave Rangers without a single striker for next weekend, and that’s a truly desperate state of affairs. But given how shoddy Morelos had been playing this calendar year, what exactly is the difference?

A passenger is an empty jersey, no better than fielding a dummy.

If Morelos had ever wanted to be at Rangers, he’d have been loved unconditionally by all – but we were never good enough for him, this league never good enough for him.

And that’s fair enough – we saw how good he was in Europe. But his inability to stop nagging for a move to the PL or indeed overseas just kept rubbing many fans up the wrong way, and it’s best for all concerned that he moves on.

We don’t care about his future, and wish him no harm or success.

Because he never really cared about us.

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