GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST has challenged Alfredo Morelos to prove he wants to have a future with Rangers after bombing him out his squad for the Champions League showdown with PSV Eindhoven.
And the Ibrox boss insists it was an 'easy' decision to leave the Colombian behind in Glasgow as he sets his sights on a famous away day win that would clinch a £40million European jackpot.
Morelos will play no part in the second leg of the play-off clash after Van Bronckhorst ruled that he wasn't in the right physical or mental condition to feature at the Philips Stadion.
The striker saw red during the Premiership draw with Hibernian on Saturday and now faces a fight to regain his place in the squad as Rangers consider their options with just days remaining of the summer transfer window.
Van Bronckhorst said: “The process was that we are playing a lot of important games at the moment and I think for me it is always the case as a manager to bring the players with me which I think are ready to play, and for me that was the moment I didn’t include Morelos.
“As a person it was a hard decision, as a manager it was an easy one because we are here to represent our club and to get into the Champions League. In my eyes this was the best squad to take.
“I think we wait and see what happens. I think the biggest factor in that is Alfredo himself. We have to see how the coming days and weeks will go.
“I think he has to show me he wants to play for Rangers. I know he wants to play, but to play for Rangers you need to have a certain level mentally and physically and at the moment I think he is not ready to play.”
Former Ibrox boss Graeme Souness this week urged Rangers to cut their losses after Morelos was dismissed for the eighth time in his Rangers career for an elbow incident that captain James Tavernier branded as 'stupid' at Easter Road.
The 26-year-old has been a key performer on the European stage for several seasons but Van Bronckhorst's patience has now run out on the eve of the hugely significant clash with Ruud van Nistelrooy's side.
Van Bronckhorst said: “Well, everybody has their opinion and they’re entitled to it, of course.
“Graeme is a great man and a great manager who has Rangers in his heart.
“But, as I said before, we will deal with this internally and speak with Morelos and see what happens in the coming weeks.
“But of course, it’s a signal that he’s not here. And a signal I had to make to Morelos, but also to my team.”
The situation with Morelos has dominated discussions ahead of the Champions League shoot-out as Rangers aim to win in Eindhoven and progress to the group stages.
It is a conundrum that Van Bronckhorst could have done without but the Dutchman is only focused on the job in hand following the 2-2 draw at Ibrox last week.
Van Bronckhorst said: “No I made the decision myself. Of course we have a leader group and I speak to the leader group quite often to talk about many things. I always keep in contact with them.
"You have to decide who to bring, you see I have many players in my squad I am responsible for, many players who want to play and who work hard and who will do everything on the pitch who will do everything to be successful for this team and for this club. For me that’s why I took this 23 players.
“We are very focused. We trained without Morelos the last few days. The players are training well, we prepared.
"We have had good meetings and [on Wednesday] we will have the final meeting to prepare for PSV. For me it’s a decision I made but I am looking forward to the task ahead tomorrow and my players have the same feeling.”
