Ravel Morrison
The troubled midfielder is searching for the 12th club of his career
Less than four months into a season-long contract, Ravel Morrison’s time with ADO Den Haag – his 11th different club in nine years – was brought to an end by mutual consent in January. Morrison was highly regarded as a youth in Manchester United’s academy. Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville have all spoken about the midfielder’s jaw-dropping displays in early first-team training sessions, and Sir Alex Ferguson is said to have rated the 17-year-old Morrison as a better prospect than Ryan Giggs at the same age.
But Morrison became renowned for being difficult to work with, inattentive and a troublemaker. Brushes with the law and the FA led to United giving up on the gifted youngster in 2012, selling him to West Ham – whose manager at the time, Sam Allardyce, would come to consider him “the biggest waste of talent I ever worked with”.
The reputation Morrison earned in his late teens has stuck. Those who have worked with the former England youth international in recent years, though, have found negative perceptions of the player to be wide of the mark.
“You’re expecting some monster with six heads to come walking through the door,” says David Preece, goalkeeping coach at Ostersunds FK, where Morrison played in 2019. “There was always that feeling of, maybe it’s a gamble to bring in somebody who could be divisive to the squad. But nothing could have been further from the truth.”
“What impressed me about him was his attitude,” adds David Webb, Ostersunds’ former director of football. “He was quite a humble lad.”
The misdemeanours of his past are well known; their root causes less so.
Morrison grew up in a deprived area of Manchester, had an unstable family life and was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age, for which it is thought he was never properly treated.
“All I can say is that it’s not his fault,” says Tony Whelan, Manchester United’s assistant academy manager. “And that’s the sadness. He was a victim of circumstances.”
Still, Morrison’s reputation has preceded him in every move he has made, to the point it has become self-fulfilling. “All these managers can’t be wrong,” said Neil Warnock, who started the player just once while Middlesbrough manager. As such, Morrison has struggled to find a suitable home.
In 2015, he joined Lazio. He made just four Serie A appearances for the club and was effectively frozen out, made to train with the reserves, and when Simone Inzaghi took charge he decided the Englishman was surplus to requirements. Igli Tare, Lazio’s sporting director, privately expressed sympathy for Morrison upon releasing him to join Ostersunds and thus agreed to waive any sell-on clauses.
Glimmers of Morrison’s gifts were on show during a 2017-18 loan to Atlas in Liga MX, but he found the club in turmoil, changing managers and with defender Rafael Marquez facing allegations of being involved in drug trafficking.
A brief spell with Ostersunds proved restorative. Morrison found a club willing to put faith and trust in him, and he reciprocated with his best form in years. He finally felt part of a team, too. He befriended the club’s kit man, a refugee from Darfur, buying him an iPad to use on away trips and offering to fund travel back to his homeland. Morrison bought Ostersunds jerseys for young fans and mentored the club’s young players.
“He needs to find an environment where he’s a key player and plays every week”
Former Ostersunds manager Ian Burchnall
Injury limited Morrison to just nine appearances in his half-season in Sweden, but he performed well enough to earn a shot at Premier League redemption with newly promoted Sheffield United in the summer of 2019.
One person with knowledge of the situation admits Sheffield United “took a punt” on Morrison, though, and that he was never an obvious tactical fit. “Even if he had done well,” they say, “he’d have been a square peg in a round hole.”
Midway through the season, unable to crack Chris Wilder’s line-up, Morrison was loaned to Middlesbrough in the Championship. He lacked match fitness upon his arrival at the Riverside but was liked by manager Jonathan Woodgate. When he was replaced by Warnock, though, the new boss felt he couldn’t invest the time required to get Morrison up to speed.
With Morrison’s loan agreement not accounting for a later-than-expected end to the season due to the pandemic, a wrangle ensued between Middlesbrough and Sheffield United; neither side wanted him.
And so came the move to Den Haag last summer. With virtually an entire squad bought and sold ahead of the season, the Dutch side were always likely to struggle. The official announcement of Morrison’s release insisted club and player parted on amicable terms. Den Haag had won just one of their first 14 Eredivisie fixtures, of which Morrison had featured in only four.
“He needs to find an environment where he’s a key player and plays every week,” says former Ostersunds manager Ian Burchnall. “Not many clubs have bought him and said, ‘Right, we’re going to invest our energy into him to get out what we can.’”
What Morrison most needs – patience – is a luxury in football, and one the clubs willing to roll the dice on a player like him can ill afford.
Whether the talent he showed as a teen has been spent, or whether he is just waiting to find the right circumstances, Morrison, who turned 28 in February, is likely to remain an enigma.