In a shock revelation late last night The Sun released an exclusive article on Antonio Colak. The article claims that there were bids for the Croatian striker from the Bundesliga and MLS in January. Michael Beale rejected those as the club still had a shot at three trophies at that stage.
Since then though, the goals have dried up for Colak and Michael Beale has favoured Alfredo Morelos when both are fit. He scored seven in his first nine games and has thirteen in twenty-four total SPFL appearances. He’s managed a goal every 108mins with a conversion rate of 17%. Purely based on those numbers he’s had a great first season at Ibrox, especially considering recent injury issues.
For the most part though, he hasn’t offered much outside the goals. He only wins 26% of aerial duels and isn’t strong enough to hold up the ball against dominant centre backs. His link up play is hit and miss and he doesn’t possess the pace to burst beyond the opponents back line. That being said, give him chances and he’ll get goals, his positioning and finishing are both excellent but neither seem to be enough.
It’s been clear that if Morelos is available then he would play over Colak recently, this gives validation to the thought that Beale doesn’t feel the big Croat is a player which suits his style. With that being the case rumours have been circulating that he could be one of the players leaving this summer. That was before the reports emerged that their had been interested in January, the fact these bid were rejected suggested Beale wanted to give him more time to prove himself.
Unfortunately, he hasn’t taken the opportunity to make himself the clear number one striker at Ibrox. He’s picked up a few niggling injuries which has kept him out but only has three goals this calendar year. One of them was against Partick and the other two came against Hibs at Easter Road.
The game at Easter Road almost changed everything, he was phenomenal that night. His hold up and link up play were excellent, it was easily his best performance in a Rangers jersey. He looked like the complete striker the club had been looking for, the majority of fans were all on board with him being first choice after that night.
Then game the game against Motherwell at Fir Park ten days later and he put in a performance some fans said was the worst striking performance they had ever seen, a ‘generational stinker’. Since then he’s had nine minutes of football and it’s currently not known if he’ll play more towards the end of the season.
It would be a shame to see him go but he’s not good enough to be Rangers first choice going into next season and it’s unclear if he would be happy being 2nd/3rd choice. If the club can get close to what they paid it would be a good deal but potential Bundesliga interest could mean Rangers could squeeze a bit more money out of them.
Anything above £1.5m probably represents a good deal for Rangers if they were to sell. Do you think Colak should be sold or would you like him to stay around next season?