GRAEME MURTY last night dismissed all suggestions that the Chinese bid for Alfredo Morelos was fake.

And the Rangers manager revealed the striker is going to be offered a new and improved deal in light of the interest from Beijing Renhe.

There has been much discussion on social media and beyond about the deal, with cynics claiming it was PR spin put out to make Rangers appear to be in a better financial position than they actually are in that they could turn down the reported offer of around £7million.

However, Murty said: “It was (authentic). It was big. I heard some big number but as far as I was aware I was under no economic imperative to sell.

"If I can’t bring in a player at the same level or even better than the one we were letting go then we wouldn’t sell.

“I was told to make a footballing decision. I was not told we had got to a level where we were taking the bid. If we had got there we would have accepted it.

“Can you get someone as good as or better than Alfredo Morelos in 24 hours? No. So I was told that the money would not drive what we were doing.

“It’s great for me. Possibly there may have been times at this club when that deal would have happened. It hasn’t happened. Obviously the Chinese window is not synced to ours and they may come back but we will deal with that when it happens.

“But it was really good to know that the chairman and the board were not driving it (the decision to sell) and that he remains our player.”

And now the 21-year-old Colombian Morelos could be made one of the best paid players at Rangers.

Murty revealed: “If you think of his valuation, it probably bodes us well that we look at his deal and make sure that he's happy being here. We're discussing players' contracts right now.

“Even if they have a length of time left on their contracts, we need to make sure we protect for the club, that we have to reward if they're doing really well, Alfredo comes into that bracket but he's not the only one.

“He's just the most high-profile at the moment.”

Morelos will start against Hibernian at Ibrox today and his manager is not concerned about this still young player will deal with such a big game at the end of what has been a far from normal week

Murty said: “He has been great in training. He’s focussed and scored a hat-trick which he’s been telling everyone about. The confusion comes with everything being played out in the media.

“As a one-time player myself, I know that when you are not informed at every stage then you start to work.

“We have tried to keep him informed in terms of everything which has come in. We are trying to take away the confusion because it’s different clubs, countries, money and valuations.

"But until it’s signed, sealed and delivered then it’s a lot if, bits and maybes.

“What we have to do is we cosset him away from that so he can do what he does best, which is playing football and scoring goals. Everything else will take care of itself.

“He can only concentrate on what he can control. Everything else is speculation and that was unsettling him a bit. We have to make sure that’s gone and we can be back for the game.

“We need him to be firing against Hibs and for the second half of the season. As long as he understands that, he will be alright.”