Michael Beale more or less conceded that the Scottish Premiership title race was finished last week.
That was realism more than defeatism because when Celtic have lost only one league game since September 2021, it is highly unlikely they are going to lose four - and with a nine point lead actually being 10 when goal difference comes into it - that's what would need to happen in the remaining 12 matches. Yes, the Rangers manager will be looking to win each of the dozen league games his team has still to play, but even two wins over Celtic - and it's hard to believe they'll get anything at Parkhead given the recent smashings they've taken there - it would make no difference in the grand scheme of things.
So, that leaves the Scottish Cup and we'll get to that later. In the here and now, though, Rangers face two league games in a week against Kilmarnock at home and Hibs away. Do they want to win them? Of course they do, but if this year's league is gone then Beale ought to be looking to next season and that future looks like being without Alfredo Morelos. The Colombian might have scored at Hampden on Sunday but if the people at Rangers are being honest with themselves, they'll recognise that Morelos is a shadow of the player he used to be and it really is time to bring the curtain down on his Ibrox career.
I don't know if Beale is hoping his striker will sign a new contract. He's certainly made the right noises about it but it would seem that the other big name whose deal is coming to an end, Ryan Kent, is more likely to stay put and at least the former Liverpool kid is putting in a shift and looking like he's interested.
Morelos has ambled about the pitch all season, looking disinterested and petulant, as displayed on Sunday when he was subbed in the second half not long after scoring.
Occasionally he gives glimpses of the player he was; the guy who now holds the club's European goalscoring record and the striker who scored twice at Tynecastle a few weeks ago. But that double has represented a fifth of the goals he has scored this season. Ten in 34 appearances for a team that creates as many chances as Rangers do is a paltry return.
Even when Morelos wasn't scoring goals in the past, his value to the team was incalculable. He ragdolled some very good European defenders in his pomp, taking on entire back fours on his own at times. But the one-man wrecking ball is more like a beach ball these days, bouncing aimlessly around the pitch. On Sunday, Celtic played the ball back to Joe Hart repeatedly and this is a goalkeeper who makes great saves at times but can be a bombscare with the ball at his feet.
A fit and focused striker would have been standing on Hart's toes, scaring the life out of him when he had possession but more often than not, the keeper had time to take a touch before trying to find a team-mate.
Morelos looks like a man who doesn't care enough. I'm sure he'd deny that accusation but actions speak louder than words. If Beale is looking to a future without him, he has to sit out the South American. Ideally, that would mean Kemar Roofe getting a run in the team but his injury woes are concerning and yet again, arguably the best finisher at the club was suited and booted in the stand on Sunday when his team needed him on the pitch.
Instead of Roofe coming on to replace Morelos, it was Antonio Colak - a completely different type of striker and one who is woefully off the pace, having started only one game - against Partick Thistle in the Scottish Cup - since the World Cup break. But Colak, unlike Morelos in all probability, will be at Ibrox next season.
No doubt Beale will look to bring another centre forward, but the Croat will be there and needs games under his belt to restore the sharpness and self-belief that brought him 14 goals by the end of October.
Only meaningful minutes on the pitch will rid him of the rustiness that saw him allow the ball to squeeze between his legs when it broke to him in a great position at Hampden on Sunday. Had that situation arose earlier in the campaign when he was fit and firing, there's every chance it would have been buried. He's a goalscorer; he's proved that.
He just needs to play and if he misses a few chances getting up to speed, so be it. There's still a Scottish Cup to be won and if Beale can get Colak back in business, there's a better chance of doing it than if he were to keep relying on a man who doesn't look as if he wants to be there.
