Former Celtic player Charlie Nicholas believes a team would have to be “really, really desperate” to match Rangers’ £40m valuation of Alfredo Morelos.
Despite scoring 25 goals in just 28 games this season, the Sky Sports pundit has questioned the asking price, stating that Celtic’s Odsonne Edouard should be worth £10m more:
“Dave King has said he wouldn’t sell him for £40m in January. Well, if Morelos is worth that then Celtic must be thinking Odsonne Edouard is worth £50m.”
“We can all come up with numbers but unless a club is genuinely interested and comes up with a realistic bid then it means nothing. The bottom line is that Gers are not going to get anyone to bid anywhere near that. It would need to be a team that is really, really desperate.”
Unsurprisingly, supporters on Twitter were unhappy with Nicholas’s remarks:
They paid £8m more for a player who's struggling to deliver even half the amount of goals Morelos is bagging for Rangers
I don't blame them for greeting and living in denial over it all
— G (@garryhood1872) December 3, 2019
Why spend 40m on Morelos when you can spend 50m on a guy with less than half his goals…. Timmy logic ????
— John Alexander (@johnale26465604) December 3, 2019
Oh dear Charlie ???
— Murray Semple (@SempleMurray) December 3, 2019
Morelos: International striker, top goal scorer in the country. On target for 30 goals before Xmas.
Eddy: France youth midfielder.
— Matt Damon GREW TATTIES ON MARS!!! (@TFIO_WDTGH) December 3, 2019
This is getting beyond childish
— Gov’nor Walker ?✋???? (@nor_gov) December 3, 2019
Why are they concerning themselves with something to do with rangers…. Again
— Moots (@Goosestaffa) December 3, 2019
Charlie is so out of touch with Scottish football he’s lost it typical tim
— david greenhorn (@davidgreenhorn2) December 3, 2019
— Kamararama?? (@Chris210188) December 3, 2019
Good ol Charlie chuckles…good for a laugh.
— ..and Smith must score (@SmithScore) December 3, 2019
Rangers chairman Dave King was simply saying that Morelos would not be sold for any price in January, and he was plucking a figure out the air to make his point so Nicholas’s criticism of the asking price isn’t valid anyway.
Even so, if you are to measure how Edouard and Morelos compare this season in terms of numbers, the Colombian comes out on top by a large margin, having scored 12 more goals in only three more appearances.
With both having played in the Europa League this season, as well, the standard of opposition has been similar so the Rangers man is undoubtedly having the better campaign.