By Daniel Feliciano

18th Mar, 2023 | 8:40am

Ally McCoist and Chris Sutton react to Michael Beale comments on Alfredo Morelos, share if he should get a new Rangers contract

Ally McCoist and Chris Sutton have reacted to Michael Beale’s comments on Alfredo Morelos’ Rangers future and described them as “scathing”.

Beale called out El Buffalo publicly last week and said he needed to see more from the Colombian if he wanted to have a future at the club, with his current contract set to expire at the end of the season.

And while appearing on the Scottish Football Extra show on BT Sport (17 March), Sutton and McCoist shared their views to the comments with the Rangers legend admitting that he believes it was the right thing to do to try and light a fire under the 26-year-old.

“Bit scathing Ally, wasn’t it?” Sutton asked.

“I’ll tell you where I am on it,” McCoist responded. “I thought the comments were very honest and refreshing and I thought there was a question mark over Morelos’ future at Rangers.

“But I think the gauntlet that Michael Beale threw down was to Morelos. That’s what I read from it.”

Sutton then jumped in again with another dig at Morelos, as expected.

“There’s a danger though Ally isn’t there when you call players out in public, how they’re going to respond. When it comes down to it, is big Al a sulker or isn’t he?”

But McCoist responded in agreement, and pointed out that he agreed with Beale’s assessment too.

“Well absolutely, and we’ll find out. I don’t think you can argue with Michael Beale’s comment, I think it’s a fair comment. We all know, we speak about it every Friday on the show.

“We know Morelos has talent, we know he’s got scoring ability, but he hasn’t been the player he was, particularly when he was on that run in Europe scoring all those goals in the Europa League.”

When asked by Darrell Currie if he would give Morelos a new contract at Ibrox, the legendary striker sat on the fence.

“I would need to sit him down and have a serious chat with him,” he said.

“It would be a chat along those lines, exactly what Michael Beale said in the interview.

“I’d need to find out where Alfredo Morelos’ head is, where he wants to be, where he thinks he can be, what he wants to achieve, how he feels he’s done, what he thinks he can do.

“A very fit Alfredo Morelos is the best centre-forward Rangers have got.”

When pushed for a yes or no based on what he’s seeing right now from Morelos at Rangers, McCoist gave a strong “no” as his answer.

Spot on

As usual, McCoist is spot on when it comes to the goings on at Rangers and what to do in certain situations.

Morelos is a top striker when he’s on it, but recently that has been few and far between getting him at that level and you have to begin to question his commitment to the club considering his contract situation.

Beale has already said that there has been no formal offer put to Morelos yet, and that’s because his form has been so inconsistent and his attitude has been poor at times.

The manager wants to ensure he isn’t tying down a player who isn’t going to help us get back to the top of Scottish football, and that means some tough decisions and hard conversations need to be had.

His comments were a way to light the fire under him and if a public message and warning doesn’t do the trick, then nothing will and it’s probably the right time for everyone to go their separate ways despite his obvious qualities.

In other Rangers news, an official club partner has shared what they’ve been told about a reportedly imminent exit from the club.