Ravel Morrison has played just 14 minutes of first team football for West Ham since signing from Manchester United. That may surprise a few people considering he turned down moves to Premier League clubs,Newcastle United amongst them,to drop into the Championship.
As you would expect there have been rumours that Morrison has missed training sessions and has had bust-ups with senior players at Upton Park but this proved to be untrue. Instead,the claims can be connected to the teenager’s troubled reputation going before him.
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The 19-year-old signed his first professional contract with Manchester United in February 2010,on his 17th birthday,and was the star of the show when United’s Youth team beat Sheffield United 4-1 to lift the FA Youth Cup in 2011 also chipping in with a brace of goals. Morrison who has been capped by England at Under-16,17 & 18 levels is also a troubled character from a difficult background,he pleaded guilty to two counts of witness intimidation last year and was sentenced to a 12 month referral order and also ordered to pay compensation.
Despite being described by Sir Alex Ferguson as a “Very,very talented boy” the Old Trafford manager reluctantly decided the best thing for Morrison was to get away from the distractions of Manchester as he signed for Sam Allardyce’s side in January. Despite the fresh start he was fined £7,000 by the FA for using a gay slur on Twitter in February.
Morrison will wear the number 23 shirt for the Hammers when the new season kicks-off next month and looked sharp in a recent pre-season friendly when he partnered skipper Kevin Nolan in midfield against Boreham Wood, he also played a part in the teams most recent victory at Southend United last Saturday. There’s no doubt Morrison is a highly-talented player and has the potential to go all the way with excellent balance, speed, control,vision, flair and good on both feet,but he will need to shed his “badboy” reputation and work on his temperament if he is to fulfil his potential.
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He has the talent, of that I have no doubt. In technical terms he’s not far off Jack Wilshere’s level already. What remains to be seen is whether he had the mentality yet to make the most of his career. Hopefully he does, and the stage will be set this season to show it.
Ravel in my opinion is better than Jack Wilshere..just hope he’s giving the opportunity to do the business on the field! They know he will so they don’t play him because they’re scared he’ll become famous!
Ravel never turned down Newcastle, they pulled out of a deal after failing to agree a fee.
Also, the formatting of these articles is absolutely horrendous!