A former Manchester United wonderkid was so good that his team-mates admitted they had ‘never seen anyhting like it’ – but his career never matched his potential
Manchester United have nurtured some incredible world beaters throughout the years, but not every player to come through at Old Trafford has reached the heights their potential promised.
Ravel Morrison, who turned 33 last week, is arguably the most famous example of what happens when mindset doesn’t meet talent. The attacking midfielder had the world at his feet when he was knocking on the United first-team in 2012 – but his career is one of the biggest ‘what ifs’ in football.
Despite a promising early spell at West Ham United after he was axed by United, Morrison was sent out on loans all around the world as fresh opportunities all failed to spark the FA Youth Cup winner.
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While many would have been happy with his career, plenty more believe he could have been challenging for the biggest trophies all the time. Former Birmingham City star Paul Caddis knew all about Morrison’s talent during their time at St Andrew’s together, but the defender slammed his unreliability.
If the glowing praise of Caddis is anything to go by, Morrison could have had the football world in the palm of his hands now.
“What a f****** talent. Never seen anything like this on a training ground in my life. Unbelievable,” Caddis said on the Under the Cosh podcast when asked about Morrison. “I can understand now why Alex Ferguson and all that were buzzing off him.
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“In training, it was as if he had glue. I know people say that all the time but he was a joke. He could see things that people couldn’t see, he could make passes, he could dribble, he could f****** go and get the ball back.
“It was a joke, absolutely unbelievable to watch.” Nobody ever doubted what the former Manchester United academy product could do on the pitch. However, the problem lots of managers had was either getting him to replicate his talent in matches or just getting him onto the pitch at all.
“[He was] so unreliable, so unreliable,” Caddis added. “I remember one day, Terry McDermott – what a guy Tel was – he came up, ‘right, Ravel can’t leave the training ground. The police are here for him’.
“Something had happened at home or something. Tel’s come up, said that, and then in the same sentence went ‘there’s a hole up in that fence up there if you wanna go son’. Ravel’s f***** off away in the hole.
“The police were like ‘where is he?’ and he was like ‘dunno, must have walked past yous’.”
Morrison is still playing in the UAE Second Division for Arabian Falcons and switched his international allegiance to Jamaica in 2020.