‘Obviously progressed’ – Danny Murphy delivers verdict on Morelos to Lille transfer
talkSPORT pundit Danny Murphy believes that Lille will be coming back in with a better offer for Alfredo Morelos after the Rangers striker was dropped for the game against Kilmarnock on Saturday.
Rangers won the game 2-0 with goals from Ryan Kent and new striker signing Kemar Roofe.
Morelos didn’t make the bench amid growing speculation about his future.
Talking on the White & Sawyer Show (talkSPORT, Monday, 10.45am), Jim White said, “We know Lille have bid just over £16m, Rangers are saying it’s not enough.
“Apparently Morelos’ head has been turned. Begs the question, will he play for Rangers again while this is going on?”
Danny Murphy replied saying, “Well, we don’t know, but it doesn’t look likely. Stevie said it was an easy decision after his lack of focus and hunger. That says he’s knocked on the door and said, ‘I don’t want to play because this move might be happening and I don’t want to put myself at risk of injury and then the move not happen.’
“This has obviously progressed as I don’t think you’d have a striker saying his head’s not right if he hasn’t had a conversation with Lille to say they’re going again.
“If they weren’t coming back he’d know, so I’d be absolutely gobsmacked if there wasn’t more legs in this.”
Is that the last we’ve seen of Morelos?
Like Murphy, we think that’s the last that we’re going to see of Morelos in the Blue.
He was always going to leave and with Kemar Roofe arriving, the writing was on the wall.
The only question now is how much he goes for and Rangers and Gerrard are playing a great game of sticking to their guns here.
All too often, Rangers have sold players for under their market value. £16m for Morelos is a lot of money but Rangers obviously believe they can get more from Lille.
After paying £4.5m for Roofe (or Roffe, as his shirt said on Saturday), it means Rangers will bank a huge profit on a striker they signed for just over £1m.
It’s a shame that it’s got a bit messy at the end. Rangers pay Morelos well to play football and you should never get a situation where a player refuses to play.
However, at the same time, if Rangers are nearly ready to sell, they wouldn’t want to risk a potential injury to a major asset.
This is the end game, though, and Morelos will be a loss.
In other Rangers news, Alex Bruce has hailed this player’s start to the season.