Rangers to kick off title defence with stars in place

The Colombian has been linked with a move to Porto throughout the summer but no bid has been received for the striker – nor any of his high-profile team-mates.

Glen Kamara and Borna Barisic were also thought to be attracting attention earlier in the summer while Ryan Kent and Fashion Sakala were even light-hearted links for Real Madrid after starring in the friendly win over the Spanish giants last weekend.

However all will be preparing for today’s season opener against Livingston with Steven Gerrard insisting the summer signings of Sakala and John Lundstram are to complement the talents of Morelos and Kamara – not to replace them.

He said: “The plan to add Fashion, John and Nnamdi [Ofoborh] was to make the XI and squad better – that’s the priority.

“We don’t make signings or prepare the group for people going out. I prepare it to be as strong as possible to give us the best chance of success on the pitch.

“I’m not shying away from the fact that if the right bid landed for any of our players then I’ll get a call from the board. I’ll cross that bridge when it happens, because at the moment we haven’t had one single bid for any of our players besides George Edmundson, and we accepted that bid. There are a couple of things brewing in the background but none for the big players that have been mentioned in terms of speculation in the last few days.”

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