Can't live with him, can’t live without him.
Michael Beale isn’t the first Rangers manager to struggle with that Colombian quandary but he will be the last. Alfredo Morelos’ days in Glasgow are numbered and with just four games remaining until he brings his often explosive, never dull, six-year stint at Ibrox to an end, he’ll soon become someone else’s problem. But until El Bufalo finally moves on to grazing pastures new, Beale has three more weeks where the responsibility of dealing with Morelos remains his.
It’s a challenge each of the four men to have occupied the manager’s office at Ibrox before Beale have also wrestled with. Pedro Caixinha was the man who sanctioned the £1million investment that lured the then unknown South America from HJK Helsinki in the summer of 2017. The Portuguese flop only lasted another four months in the job but long enough to spot the first signs of trouble.
“Morelos needs to control his emotional side,” Pedro pointed out ahead of the young import’s first Old Firm clash. He’ll be provoked but he has to remain calm. If I was an opposition manager, I’d say to my team to provoke Morelos. It will happen.”
He didn’t get much right during his time in Glasgow but Caixinha was bang on with that one. His sacking opened the door for Graeme Murty to return for a second ill-fated spell as Ibrox caretaker – just as the latch was being taken off China’s transfer window too.
Rumours of a big money move to the Far East with Beijing Renhe would become the first of numerous transfer tales that ended up going nowhere – other than to lead the Ibrox support down the garden path.
Murty admitted the striker’s “head had been turned” – but it was the kids coach who was left looking away in astonishment when an incredible miss in an Ibrox showdown with Celtic in March 2018 ended that year’s title bid.
Then came Steven Gerrard, a man who had played alongside tempestuous characters like Luis Suarez and, er, El Hadji Diouf during his glittering Liverpool career. But even that had not prepared the Premier League icon for the trials that come with managing Morelos.
“Alfredo is someone who is a challenge for me,” he admitted. “He’s the player that tests me the most.” There were red cards, lots of them, under Gerrard but more than that there were goals.
For all he got the best out of the 26-year-old during a period where his European exploits would see him overtake Ally McCoist as the club’s most prolific scorer against continental opposition, he also witnessed some of his darker traits.
Gerrard put up with it until he couldn’t, dropping Morelos for a Scottish Cup defeat at Hearts. Morelos would buck up his ideas and play a key role as Gerrard halted Celtic’s push for 10-in-a-row. But when Morelos missed the next season’s Champions League qualifier with Malmo because he was in Covid quarantine after failing to return to Scotland from his summer hols on time, it saw Gers locked out of the group stage and set in motion a chain of events that would eventually lead to Gerrard’s exit.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst arrived to lead the side on their Europa League thrill ride. News of van Bronckhorst’s concerns over Morelos’ “fitness and attitude” issues broke earlier this season the day before Gers’ final Champions League eliminator with PSV Eindhoven.
With £20million on the line, surely dropping his talisman would be an unthinkable move? Not so, said GVB: “We are playing a lot of important games at the moment and as a manager, I have to bring the players with me which I think are ready to play. That was the moment I didn’t include Morelos.”
Morelos’ exile would last barely a fortnight as he was recalled to the bench for September’s trip to Celtic Park that proved chastening. It’s taken six months but now Beale has finally reached his own breaking point. He’s gone from dubbing Morelos a “loveable rogue” to lambasting yet another lacklustre display off the bench against Aberdeen on Sunday.
“I think you saw a difference when Alfredo came on in terms of energy but not a positive difference,” he said before emphatically confirming Morelos’ time will be up this summer.
Will Saturday’s final Old Firm encounter of the season be the setting for a last hurrah of a striker who has given the Ibrox faithful some of their most cherished recent memories – goals home and away to Porto, the last-minute winner against Legia Warsaw, the Salt Bae celebration down the camera lens.
Or will it be another demonstration the best of the Buffalo is past? It’s a dilemma for a manager who can see the pressure gauge rise with every derby that passes without a win. One way or another, Beale will have to live with the consequences.
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