ALFREDO MORELOS is living the dream. Sometimes, though, you wouldn't know it.
And that is the first challenge - before contract talks or tactical discussions - that Michael Beale must address if he is to get the best out of the enigmatic Colombian.
The frowned face and shrugged shoulders don't give off the impression that Morelos is loving life as he collects thousands of pounds each week to play the beautiful game for one of the biggest clubs in the world and in front of a crowd that adore him.
At 26, Morelos still has the football world at his feet. Ultimately, it will come down to his mentality and how much he really wants it.
He has made his money and his name at Ibrox but still has the talent and potential to collect medals and plaudits with Rangers or elsewhere.
Beale joked that he and Morelos are still in their 'honeymoon period' after rekindling their relationship in recent days. It could be a match made in Heaven or the beginning of the end and a short-term marriage second time around.
The 'noise’ around Morelos that Beale addressed never really goes away. In the quieter moments together on the training pitch, the striker and Beale have bonded and there is a fondness for a player that the manager describes as the 'laugher and joker' in the group.
Beale is not the first to suggest that Morelos can be more fluent in English than he lets on at times. Thanks to some broken Portuguese and a bit of Spanish, the pair have picked up where they left off last November.
“Just by being honest all the time," Beale said when asked how he man manages a character like Morelos. “Like, on Tuesday me and Alfredo were part of the group that went around the hospital.
“That’s the sort of thing people don’t see with Alfredo. He gives time to people.
“When he’s on the pitch he’s very committed and he has that look on his face sometimes. I’d like him to smile more, I think that’s important.
“I’ve actually said that to Ryan Kent too and some of the other players - show that you’re living your dream. I want them to show that they are.
“At this time of year especially as a footballer you’re around your family and arguably everybody in your family would want to be you.
“You’re a professional football player, you earn money to play in front of thousands of people, earning a good living. It’s important that they enjoy that.
“Sometimes at clubs like Rangers the background noise can become a bit big, and overlook that.
“So it’s important I have those conversations and Alfredo is certainly a better player when he feels the warmth of everybody around him. The only place we can guarantee that is inside this building.”
When Beale arrived at Ibrox first time around alongside Steven Gerrard, he had no idea what he was getting in terms of Morelos the player or Morelos the person. That, of course, is not the case now.
He spent countless hours each week working closely with the Colombian and the forwards in the squad and was fully cognisant of the balance that had to be struck when judging a figure that was ‘sometimes high maintenance but also high output’.
That end product is why Beale remains so keen to see Morelos commit his future to Rangers for the long term and the return of a former mentor could yet prove decisive when it comes to how Morelos and Ryan Kent view their respective situations.
“Yeah I definitely think so," Beale said when asked if he was confident Morelos and Kent, who is also out of contract in the summer, would perform amid the uncertainty over their futures. "Connor (Goldson) managed to do it last year and obviously Connor stayed which we are delighted with.
"I think it’s a matter of the club also wanting to have a look. The management has changed as well and with a management change you don’t know if the players are going to be more happy or less happy and the time for us to assess that is probably in the January window when we have five or six or seven games out of the way.
“Certainly I think players only want to be at clubs that are moving forward. And coaches only want players that are moving forward as well.
"At the moment, with me coming in all of that is a little bit up in the air so I don’t think right now is the moment to be discussing it.
"I think in five or six games' time when we are sat discussing it we will either be in good health or bad health and those two players’ situation may follow that as well.”
The first of those fixtures arrives this evening. The victory over Bayer Leverkusen at the weekend was routine but overcoming Hibernian is non-negotiable if Rangers are to keep their faint Premiership ambitions alive.
There were signs on Saturday that Beale has made an instant impact and there were flashbacks to his first stint in terms of how the team looked. Some changes from the Giovanni van Bronckhorst era will take more time to become evident but a partnership between Morelos and Antonio Colak would be a significant step away from the previous regime.
“Yeah, and we obviously have Kemar (Roofe) as well as fashion Sakala who was signed as a striker," Beale said. “I know he’s been playing as a wide player.
“When we play with three up front we say they’re three No. 9s, or three forwards, and they’re able to interchange. But I do feel that those two can play together.
“We have the top goalscorer in the league in Colak with someone who has been prolific before in the league in Alfredo.
“So as long as they are fit and willing to play together then I don’t see any reason why they can’t.
“We could then have Ryan Kent or Alex Lowry playing behind - or Rabbi - with Tillman breaking out of midfield, or Arfield.
“I feel you need three and a half goalscorers on the pitch and we’re unique in that we’ve got a goalscoring right-back which also adds to it and gives us a lot of potential.”
It is now up to Beale to unlock that potential. He has doubters to win over on his return to Ibrox and knows all too well that the easiest way to do that is by winning matches.
A change of approach on the pitch and voice in the dressing room so often sparks an immediate improvement individually and collectively. Does Beale buy into the theory of a new manager bounce?
"I do and I don't," Beale said. "It is something everyone looks at and what it does is that it makes everyone have a clean slate but you are certainly not going to make a team at the bottom of the league Real Madrid overnight.
"You can only improve the atmosphere and the sum of the players you have by a little bit. I think here there is a real commitment towards ‘okay, in the last couple of years we have had two different managers, won a lot of games, and fallen short at times as well, so what are the best ingredients of both, added to my ideas moving forward’.
"It is in everyone’s interest at Rangers to pull in the same direction because it is not a great place when things are not going well, as we know."
