STEVEN GERRARD has dismissed a ‘disrespectful’ bid from Bordeaux for Alfredo Morelos as he looks to tie the striker down on a new long-term contract.
Rangers rejected a £3.75million offer from the Ligue 1 side on the eve of their Europa League third qualifying round clash with Maribor.
Morelos played for 90 minutes in Slovenia and helped Gerrard’s side reach the play-off round as a goalless draw earned them a 3-1 aggregate victory.
Now the Colombian could be set to land another new deal at Ibrox as Gerrard looks to ensure he remains central to his blueprint this term.
Gerrard said: “We want him here. I hope the club realise the importance of the player. In an ideal situation, we stick by him and renew his contract.
“We keep hold of him because he is very important to me and to us and the club. If we want success moving forward, we have to keep our best players. Every single player has a price, but no-one will be leaving here on their terms. It will be our terms.
“Nowhere near it. Disrespectful. I can’t control if they are going to come back or go away. I don’t care.
“All I can do is go to the board and say ‘I want this player to stay and I think he deserves a new contract on better terms’. And then he can focus on helping us be successful moving forward.”
Gerrard was without the services of midfielder Lassana Coulibaly after he failed to recover from a knock picked up in the win over St Mirren on Sunday.
And the Ibrox boss will continue to monitor the Malian ahead of the trip to Kilmarnock in the Betfred Cup this weekend.
He said: “It’s not major but we will get him checked out [today]. He tried to have a go [on Wednesday], to be fair, to get himself fit. He wasn’t 100 per cent so we didn’t want to take the risk.”
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