‘Zero truth’ in Alfredo Morelos China bid says Rangers boss Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard has railed against unseen influences he believes are unsettling Alfredo Morelos, with the Rangers manager stressing that the Ibrox club have not had a single note of interest in the player despite up to 10 clubs being touted as potential buyers, writes Andrew Smith.

There has been no interest in Rangers forward Alfredo Morelos says Steven Gerrard. Picture: SNS

Gerrard said there was “zero truth” in reports of interest from China in Morelos, but stopped short of pointing the finger at the striker’s US-based agent Michael Gorman.

“I wouldn’t like to comment on that,” he said. “I’m very keen to keep him and if we want to be successful then it’s important we keep our best players and Alfredo certainly comes into that category. The disappointing thing is that someone, somewhere is creating a lot of nonsense and speculation around the kid and it’s not helping him.

“It’s certainly nobody connected to this football club because everyone here wants him to stay and be successful.

“There’s always an angle, although I’m not sure what that angle it is. It’s difficult to talk about it because we don’t know who it is and we don’t want to accuse anyone of anything. But there’s a lot of noise around the player – he’s been linked with around eight to 10 clubs and yet the phone hasn’t gone. If I talk to him about it then I’d be talking to him again in three or four days time because it’s a different club every three or four days. But nobody’s phone at Rangers has rung to do with Alfredo Morelos.

“I’ve experienced this kind of speculation before around players but more often than not there’s truth in it. There’s a difference between speculation that’s true and speculation that’s nonsense.”