Out of sight, out of mind.
It’s been a little bit like that for Alfredo Morelos this summer.
While there has been plenty of speculation about the future of Connor Goldson, Calvin Bassey, Joe Aribo and others at Rangers, it had been all quiet on Morelos.
That would have been largely due to the injury he picked up late in the season and his absence in the Europa League and
Scottish Cup finals.
But make no mistake, this is going to be a huge summer for my old team-mate.
In fact, it could be a pivotal crossroads in his Rangers career.
In the last few days, he’s been linked with Sevilla. And going into the final year of his contract at Ibrox, that’s not surprising.
Morelos has a big call to make in the next few months.
And he’s in total control of the situation.
Rangers won’t want to let it run his deal down, that’s for sure.
All that does is create rumours and fuel uncertainty.
The player and his manager then have to deal with that, which is why it has to be resolved. And by all accounts, it looks like discussions over a new contract have already started between the club and Alfredo.
But the Columbian is the one with the decision to make.
Over the course of five years here, he’s said that he’d like to play in a better league.
So far, only Lille have made a concrete bid but the French side never met Rangers’ valuation.
If Alfredo really wants a move to the Premier League, La Liga or the Bundesliga, he might feel the best opportunity now is to go on a free next summer.
The flip side to that is he looks happy at Rangers. He’s found a home here and is adored by the Ibrox fans.
So there are two sides to it. But he is the one who holds all the aces here.
With just a year left, if Rangers want to sell now I’d be surprised if they got an eight-figure fee. It would be millions, just not tens of millions.
At this stage, if the club wants to maximise his value, trying to get him re-signed is paramount.
Because then, even if he did leave in a year or two, they could get a much bigger transfer fee.
Morelos pretty much guarantees goals.
And at a very good level too, given that he’s Rangers’ all-time top European scorer.
To do that in the short space of time he has been at Ibrox is an incredible achievement.
In the fans’ eyes, Morelos is already a club icon.
He has been a favourite from the minute he walked in the door. The Rangers punters took to him because of how he plays the game.
Also, because of the hard time he gets from referees at times, the supporters love to back him.
A new contract could see him at the club for almost 10 years.
He arrived as a 20-year-old and might spend the majority of his career at Rangers. And if he continued scoring, Morelos could become one of the all-time greats at Ibrox.
As long as he stays fit and in form, Alfredo could hit 200 goals for Rangers.
He’s got a long way to go before he catches Ally McCoist as all-time top scorer.
But if he signs a new contract this summer, he could go on to cement proper legendary status at the club.
That’s why this is such a huge decision for him. Is that something he’ll look at and factor in?
He might want to try a bigger league, with no disrespect to the Premiership.
But what I’d say to Alfredo is that he might move to a bigger league – but not a bigger club.
The demands at Rangers and the opportunities you get – playing in Europe, winning leagues and cups – he might not get that wherever he goes.
When you leave a club like Rangers, that can be a gap that’s really hard to fill because the expectations just aren’t the same elsewhere.
I would urge him to weigh all of that up.
Since I played with him, Alfie’s game has definitely improved.
He’s still got that same passion and edge. And goals have remained constant.
But if someone had told me when he first walked into Ibrox in 2017 that he’d be here for five years and be the club’s top scorer in Europe – I wouldn’t have believed it.
That’s just based on what happened early on with Alfredo’s Light Blues career.
I remember there was constant speculation. Almost immediately, it felt like he was being linked with moves to places like China, for example.
There were sound bites coming out of Alfredo’s camp that he could move on pretty quickly.
But all these years later he’s still there. And now there’s talk of an extension.
As I’ve said, if he signs on again, Morelos could end up spending the rest of his career at Ibrox, or the best years at least.
That’s a massive commitment from Alfredo. He would join the likes of Goldson and James Tavernier in doing that. And any decision he makes could impact Rangers’ recruitment this summer.
People have spoken about a ‘rebuild’. But all of a sudden, Steven Davis, Scott Arfield, Connor Goldson, maybe Allan McGregor and now Morelos might re-sign.
Ryan Kent could also be on the list. So maybe it won’t be as big an overhaul as we thought. There were a load of questions at the end of the season. But half of them could be answered in the next week or so.
The spine of the team might all commit themselves to the club for the next few years.
So maybe, instead of a revamp, boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst might just need to tweak this side for the new season.
What was missing last term was that Rangers didn’t improve their starting line-up with signings.
They’ll have looked at that and lessons will have been learned.
There are still two or three positions in the line-up where they need to strengthen and that will be dependent on who gets sold and who stays.
But that’s where a coach or manager wants to be. Gio won’t want a rebuild, he’ll want a stable group with a quality core.
So far they haven’t lost anyone of substance yet.
And Morelos definitely comes into that category.
