Rangers manager Michael Beale has cast doubt on stories linking Alfredo Morelos with a pre-contract deal with Sevilla but says he has not had recent conversations with the player over his future.
The Colombian striker is out of contract at the end of the season and Beale is on record as saying that he wants to see more from Morelos as he makes decisions about his squad for next year.
As things stand, the forward, who has been a valuable goalscorer over his six years at Ibrox, is set to leave Glasgow for nothing. Reports have claimed that Sevilla have agreed a deal for him to move to Spain in the summer.
“I am not sure that is the case,” Beale said after Rangers beat Raith Rovers 3-0 to reach the Scottish Cup semi-finals. “If it is we will find out in the coming days. My focus has been on the game.
“He 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. But we haven’t spoken about it.”
Morelos was a second-half substitute as Rangers booked their place at Hampden. Connor Goldson and Scott Arfield found the net either side of a Ryan Nolan own goal and Beale was pleased with how his side handled the task at Ibrox.
“We’ve played three games this week and faced three different types of challenges, today Raith tried to make the game really difficult by staying in.
“We had 18 corners, 24 shots. When the first goal goes in from a corner the game you hope it opens up a bit but it didn’t, they stayed disciplined and stuck to their task so it made for a slow game.
“Although it was our third game in a week I’d like us to be a little bit sharper in and around the box.
“I thought Borna Barisic put in some fantastic crosses today and we need people to go in and challenge for those.
“But it was a slow game, there were a lot of niggly injuries, and I’m just glad we’re through to the semi-final.
“They were really deep and I can’t choose how the other team approach the game, we can only face the problems that are put in front of us.
“In midweek Hibs came and tried to face us head on and left spaces and we were really ruthless.
“Raith tried a different tactic of being really compact in the game. We still got into really good areas and I’m expecting us to do slightly better.
“But the way they played the game we had to see it out professionally and we did that in the end.
“After the high of Wednesday we had to go through that one today and the most important things were a clean sheet, three goals and we move on.”
Raith Rovers boss Ian Murray took what positives he could from how his team played, impressed with how they fared against the side second in the Premiership.
He said: “We are disappointed to be out of the Scottish Cup. We wanted to go further obviously.
“But my emotion right now is pride in the football players, I thought they were excellent.
“I thought the discipline and the shape and structure they carried out was great.
“Also pride in the supporters we brought today and the appreciation they showed us towards the end.
“But to a man I thought our players gave everything within the game.”
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