Michael Beale reacts to Alfredo Morelos Rangers exit claims as Union Bears protest addressed

Rangers manager Michael Beale has cast doubts on claims striker Alfredo Morelos has signed a pre-contract agreement with Sevilla.

Reports in Spain this week suggested that the Colombian, a substitute in Sunday's 3-0 Scottish Cup quarter-final win over Raith Rovers, has agreed a deal to join the La Liga side upon the expiry of his Rangers contract this summer, potentially bringing an end to his six-year spell with the Ibrox club.

However, Beale insists that he has not spoken to Morelos regarding his future since the reports emerged and when asked whether he hoped to have been informed by the player if such a decision has been made, the Rangers boss replied: "Yeah, but I am not sure that is the case. If it is we will find out in the coming days. My focus has been on the game.

"He [Morelos] has trained all week. I just decided to go with the two forwards that played so well on Wednesday. No, we have not discussed it. I have not seen any change in him. Obviously he has been free to speak to whatever club he likes for a good while now that we are into March. He has had that but we haven’t spoken about it."

Alfredo Morelos was on the bench for Rangers' 3-0 win over Raith Rovers amid reports of signing a pre-contract with Sevilla. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

Rangers eased into the Scottish Cup semi-finals but did so without the support of fan group, Union Bears, who remained outside the ground in protest after being prevented from displaying a banner deemed by the club to be “offensive” towards the police. A Rangers spokesman said: "The Union Bears elected to absent themselves from the stadium because the Club would not permit the offensive anti-police banner display."

The Union Bears later released a statement describing the removal of the banners as a "clear breakdown of trust and an attempt to silence our group's valid concerns." Beale admitted afterwards he was unaware of the facts surrounding the protest as he reflected on the quieter than usual atmosphere inside the stadium.

"I don’t really know what’s going on there, I just felt there was a level of expectation from the crowd in the stadium today, it was a slow game and everyone was expecting us to be free-flowing like we were in midweek. But styles make games and they stayed in and made it difficult at times. They had ten players around their 18-yard box and they were blocking little things. That’s fine, we had to find a way to get through that. Kilmarnock in the second-half last week went really defensive as well and that’s fine but it made for a sticky game. The really top teams who pay millions for their players find those moments difficult - we’ll go away and work on it. In terms of the fans, in a quarter-final they expect a lot. We played well in midweek and I know they were happy with that and I’m sure they’ll be happy they’re going back to Hampden."