On Wednesday, Rangers will wave goodbye to millions in potential lost revenue.
But instead of cursing missed opportunities to cash in, Michael Beale would prefer the Ibrox faithful to spend their final night at Ibrox with their departing stars welcoming the service they’ve offered. The last home game of the season against Hearts will see Alfredo Morelos, Ryan Kent, Allan McGregor, Filip Helander and Scott Arfield take a curtain call in front of their adoring public after it was confirmed the big-earning quintet’s time in Glasgow is up.
Heroes of the club’s Invincible title-winning campaign, they can each claim to have made a major contribution to Rangers’ history. But in Morelos – the club’s top European scorer – and £7million man Kent’s case, the fact they are about to ride off into the sunset without a single penny being tossed into the club coffers will still frustrate a good many supporters.
There was a time Ibrox chiefs would’ve been rubbing their hands in anticipation of the riches they expected to make from selling the pair on. But Beale, quizzed on the failure to secure a return on the huge investment in Kent when he signed permanently from Liverpool in 2019, said: “You have got to have an offer and the boy has got to want to go.
“You’re not going to push anyone out the door. It’s all right to say we should have taken this or that but in that time I don’t know if people would have traded a title, a European final or a Scottish Cup.
“If you look at it and put those two players together and say they cost Rangers what they did then they have made fantastic contributions to the club. If you look at recent individual cases, Calvin Bassey for 230 grand, Joe Aribo for 200 grand, Nathan Patterson out of the academy. There’s £50m there.
“If you bring a player in for £850,000 and he becomes your European top scorer and stays seven years, you’ve got service from him. It’s the same with Ryan. Certainly we need to be a club that’s trading players and in the last 12 months we’ve brought nigh on £50million in so we’ve traded more than anybody else in the last 18 months.
“There’s got to be a balance to it. Both boys have made a fine contribution.”
Critics will accuse Gers chiefs of showing too much sentiment in retaining stars that should have been moved on earlier – such as when Leeds and Lille were dishing out eight-figure offers for Kent and Morelos. But Beale has shown he’s prepared to take a cold-blooded approach to rebuilding his squad after revealing it was his call to pull the plug on contract negotiations with his top duo.
He said: “I wasn’t here when decisions were made last summer but I am in control of decisions now and it’s right for Rangers we don’t put a plaster over something that maybe needs amputating. We need to really move to the future. Were Morelos and Kent offered new deals? Not in the time I was here.
“We parked those conversations until earlier this month and then it was confirmed on our side that we think it’s right for all parties to look for something new. I wish them both well and I’ll be supporting them from afar.”
There had been expectations some of the departing veterans would be kept on in a coaching capacity. That might yet transpire for McGregor, 41, but at 34, Beale believes Arfield still has aspirations to play on.
Dispensing with a figure as popular among the fanbase as he was around the training ground was a tough decision. But with Alex Lowry and prospect Bailey Rice, 16, desperate for an opening, it had to be done.
Beale added: “Scott was a difficult decision because he’s been contributing on the pitch. But with one or two midfielders coming in and the hope Tom Lawrence returns to fitness, then you have young Bailey and Alex. You have to think about the bigger picture for both Scott and for Rangers also.”
READ NEXT
