Ultimate United
A Career Un-Ravel-led 21 Mar 2018 16:07
Earlier this week, it was reported that former Manchester United starlet Ravel Morrison has agreed to play International football for Jamaica. He has since confirmed this on his official Twitter account. While he may sound like he is happy, and even honoured, to play international football, it must feel like a hollow victory in some senses. Had his career gone the way that everyone expected it to, he would have surely been in contention to make Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the World Cup this summer. That he has pledged his allegiance to a national side who have only qualified for the tournament once in their history, shows clearly how much his stock has fallen in the six years since he left Old Trafford.
High Hopes
Morrison was described by Sir Alex Ferguson as the “best player” he had seen at that age when he signed as a first year scholar at Manchester United in 2009, turning professional on his 17th birthday the following year. This was a bold statement from the man who nurtured the likes of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers from youth team players to European Champions. Less than three years later, however, he had departed Old Trafford after failing to agree a new contract, having made just three substitute appearances in the League Cup, leaving a fleeting sense of what could have been
During the 2011 – 12 season, United were facing criticism from both fans and media alike, for failing to invest in a midfield which looked to be seriously lacking creativity. Reports were coming in from fans who watched the Under 21 matches that United had two serious prospects in the ranks that might be able to remedy the problem – Paul Pogba and Ravel Morrison. They had won the F.A. Youth Cup the previous season, along with current United star Jesse Lingard.
United lost the Manchester Derby 6 – 1 at the Theatre of Dreams in October 2011, with United fans watching helplessly as David Silva and Yaya Touré ripped their midfield apart. It was well documented in the media that both Pogba and Morrison, along with their Under-21 team-mate, left back Ezequiel Fryers, were out of contract the following summer, and United were no nearer getting them all to sign new ones.
It’s no secret that the players all wanted vastly superior terms to those that were being offered by the club. It tends to happen a lot these days, a lot of players are financially secure for the rest of their lives before they even reach a hundred games as a professional. Lingard and Marcus Rashford are prime examples of this. It’s easy to look back now, but many players who are given huge contracts when they are barely out of their teens don’t go on to fulfil the potential that earned them such riches in the first place.
In Hindsight
In Pogba’s case, you can safely say that United should have paid it, because he was clearly satisfied by the terms offered by Juventus (which were probably about the same as he was demanding at United), and within three years he went on to be the most sought-after central midfielder in Europe. United would have saved themselves a fortune, and the pressure that comes with an £89 million price tag would not have been an issue. Despite the fact that Pogba hasn’t had the sort of impact that was expected since his return, he can quite rightly say he is playing at the top level, something that was expected of Morrison.
Ezekiel Fryers moved to Tottenham Hotspur via Belgian club Standard Liège (in a move that really annoyed Ferguson). He moved to Crystal Palace after just a handful of appearances at White Hart Lane, spent time on loan at Rotherham United and Ipswich Town. Last summer he joined Barnsley, and has so far played just twice for them. He is now 25 years old, and has yet to reach 60 first team games as a professional footballer.
As for Morrison, he moved to West Ham United in January 2012, who played in the Championship at that time. Alex Ferguson advised Sam Allardyce that he was signing a brilliant talent, who just needed to get away from Manchester. His career record since then suggests it might not quite be as simple as that.
With West Ham promoted back to the Premier League later that year, Morrison was sent on loan spell to Birmingham City to gain regular first team football. Despite a few concerns about his attitude to training, when he was given a run in the team he made a decent fist of it. He returned to Upton Park for the start of the 2013 – 14 season and became a regular squad player, even scoring a fantastic goal against Tottenham at White Hart Lane which had Allardyce purring that it was a goal of the season contender. Later that season, however, he was sent back on loan to another Championship club, Queens Park Rangers. His goals and assists helped them secure promotion back to the Premier League via the Play-Off – although Morrison was an unused substitute for the Final.
Upon his return to Upton Park, reports started to resurface about his attitude and professionalism, and he was sent for yet another Championship loan spell, this time to Cardiff City. This loan spell ended in disaster after the club terminated the loan early, and he returned to the Hammers in December 2014. This proved to be the final straw, as West Ham terminated his contract.
The Italian Job
In the summer of 2015, Morrison joined Italian side Lazio, having signed a pre-contract agreement the previous January. It should have been a chance for him to start afresh, in a league where he was not known as the “wonderkid let go by United”. In addition to the fact that they are a giant of a club who have under-achieved for years, and as was the case with Pogba, Serie A could have been the perfect place to showcase his talents. It didn’t quite work out that way, as he made just eight appearances in total for them. His perceived lack of effort, and lack of enthusiasm for learning Italian, led to him being criticised by then manager Stefano Pioli.
After a trial at Wigan Athletic failed to work, he spent a further loan spell at Q.P.R. last season, which saw him make just five appearances, but The R’s did not take up the £2 million option to sign him permanently. At the start of this season, Morrison joined Mexican side Club Atlas, for whom he has played 17 games and scored three times so far. This has brought him to the attention of Jamaica boss Theodore Whitmore, who has called him up to his latest training camp.
Going Forward
There appears to be no future for Ravel Morrison at Lazio. He has just under eighteen months left on his contract at the Rome club, but he appears to be surplus to requirements in the Eternal City. They may choose to loan him out again for the final year of his contract, or terminate it altogether this summer.
There is no guarantee that he will find a new club somewhere, and there is no doubt that he is running out of chances. Now 25 years old, you would think that time is running out. If he doesn’t get his act together, the years of underachievement will pass by without him even realising, by which time, nobody will touch him. Given how his career has gone, it would surprise nobody if he is playing non-league football, or retired altogether, by the time he is thirty.
His well-documented legal problems arose well before he left Manchester United, and continued after he had departed. Sources close to Old Trafford have indicated in the past that issues such as these are not helped by the company he kept during his spare time. Whether or not this is the case, the lad needs to think about his future – while he still has one.
It always seemed that both Ravel Morrison and Paul Pogba left Old Trafford because they believed that they should be given multi-million pound contracts, based on their reputations, before they had achieved anything in the game. Pogba left United, and showed the entire world what all the fuss was about, causing them to break the world transfer record to buy him back. Despite the criticism he has had this season, he can quite rightly say that he has made it in the game
With respect, it doesn’t look as though Morrison will ever do the same.
2020s