Ravel Morrison and wasted talent: How Pogba's partner at United fell from grace

Just as Manchester United prepare to pay more than £100 million to bring a former youth team player back to Old Trafford, another departed member of the club academy reminded the world of his existence.

Ravel Morrison, Paul Pogba’s former midfield partner in United’s youth team, tweeted a Vine this morning of him scoring a penalty for Lazio in a pre-season friendly shoot out. Not just any penalty, either. But a Panenka, chipped with cheeky precision over the prostrate body of the opposition goalkeeper. Doing to the Italians what they – or at least Andrea Pirlo – had done to us: it was some statement of intent by the young Englishman.

Except if Morrison’s purpose was to point out that he was still in business - that he was still in the game, that he was still the man - his unadorned social media posting had rather the opposite effect. Anyone viewing it would have shaken their head in disappointment, sighing at what might have been.

Because never mind Pogba – poised to become the most expensive player in history – when they were young players together at United it was always Morrison who drew the plaudits. Sir Alex Ferguson was particularly impressed by the lad from Wythenshawe. His athleticism, his balance, his over-abundance of skill were prodigious. He seemed destined to become not only the heartbeat of United, but England too.

By 2016, at the age of 23, he was predicted to have been a fixture in international football. He should have been ruling the roost at the Euros this summer. Instead he was tweeting shots of self-indulgent contributions to meaningless pre-season warm ups.

So good was Morrison as a kid that when Pogba’s agent made wage demands that the then United manager deemed absurd for an 18-year-old, Ferguson was relaxed about letting him go. After all, he had Morrison.

The trouble was, he may have been over-endowed with technique, but Morrison was wholly lacking in temperament. Pogba may have been ill-advised, he may have been greedy, but nobody could fault his attitude since he left United. He has worked like a Trojan, moving up through the ranks at Juventus, becoming a mainstay of the French national team, happy to adapt, keen to integrate.

He now speaks three languages fluently. Whether he moves this summer to Manchester or Madrid, the financial return will make the £35,000-a week that his agent demanded of Ferguson back in 2012 look like loose change. Here is a player about to reap the rewards of knuckling down, grafting, making the most of himself.

Which are three qualities nobody would ever associate with Morrison. Brought up in the roughest of circumstances, Morrison was blessed that he appeared to have the passport out of poverty. His feet would be his way out. Unfortunately his brain was not on the same wavelength. At United, he was constantly in trouble with the coaches, who despaired of his laissez faire attitude, his woeful time-keeping, his aversion to hard work. Not to mention the company he kept in his spare time.

For years he was tolerated because of his prodigious talent. But the gathering litany of court cases, police interventions and proto-gangster posturing soon stalled his progress. Eventually Ferguson, who had humoured the lad constantly, despaired of his approach. He was let go to West Ham, where, the manager hoped, geographical distance from the influences of his childhood would help him focus on realising the genius within him.

It didn’t. At Upton Park he flittered across the radar, occasionally showcasing his wonderful skills, but more often than not disappointing. He was sent out on loan in an effort to alter his mindset. Soon his reputation was of a serial waster, unwilling to do even the minimum required to advance self-improvement. There were more court cases, more surly disregard for authority. His immaturity was proving less a passing phase than a permanent character flaw.

Eventually his contract at West Ham came to an end. And no-one in England seemed prepared to take him on. So he went to Italy last summer. It was a new start with Lazio, he said at the time, a new chapter, the chance to show he had been misunderstood. He began with a bang, scoring twice on his first appearance in a friendly, sending the Lazio fans into raptures, drawing immediate comparisons with the club’s other mercurial Englishman: Paul Gascoigne.

It didn’t last. Soon his coach Stefano Pioli was publicly criticising his attitude, his fitness, his all-round reluctance to embrace the local culture (he had hopelessly failed to learn a word of Italian). Morrison responded by tweeting the single word ‘January’.

But nobody came in for him during the window and he remained where he was, featuring but three times for the first team last season. And he has already seen three managers through the Stadio Olimpico revolving door. Pioli was soon sacked, Simone Inzaghi lasted no more than three months as stand-in while Marcelo Bielsa, the legendary Argentine whose disciplinarian’s celebration of the work ethic would have been tested immediately by Morrison, lasted just two days in the job.

Inzaghi is now back in temporary control. And Morrison has been given a start in a pre-season friendly to remind everyone who he is. Sadly, there is nothing in his approach to his work throughout his career that suggests he will seize the opportunity and run with it.