Ravel Morrison seeking a fresh start – again

As we head toward the final few days of the January window there are strong suggestions in the media that attacking midfielder Ravel Morrison will move to Italy from West Ham. The Daily Mail has said today that, despite various issues, the move to Lazio should still go ahead.

West Ham outcast Ravel Morrison’s proposed move to Lazio hit a stumbling block on Tuesday, but he still expects to seal his move to Italy.

The 21-year-old was due to travel to Rome to sign a pre-contract with the Serie A club on Wednesday.

But the Hammers initially blocked Morrison’s trip to the Italian capital, insisting he did not have permission to fly over and would be in breach of contract if he did.

It’s amazing that he’s still only 21. But his career already looks like a movie which promises so much but is ruined by a highly predictable ending.

The problem is that everyone seems to be able to predict the ending except for the West Ham star himself.

His talent has never been in doubt. He started out at Manchester United and Old Trafford legend Rio Ferdinand was moved to say of the youngster:

‘I would pay to watch him train, let alone play in a match,’

‘Ever since the first day I saw him, my old boss (Sir Alex Ferguson) said ‘have a look at this boy’. He was taking the mick out of everyone on the pitch when he was about 14.

‘The manager thought he was the best player he had seen at that age.

This is a player of such natural ability. But the feeling is that he is inevitably going to waste it because of his temperament.

Every club that he has played for has seen how good he can be. But getting him to perform on a regular and consistent basis seems to be the eternal issue.

At his age, Morrison will probably assume that he has years in the game and loads of time to get to the top – not the case. He is already running out of clubs befitting his talent in England and a similar attitude in Italy will surely leave him with less friends in the game than ever.

What Morrison needs now is a mentor – a father figure to get his head right and make him fully aware that he is in danger of frittering away the incredibly rare talent that he has been so blessed with.

We thought that West Ham manager Sam Allardyce, or indeed Harry Redknapp, would be the perfect fit for the job. Neither suffers fools but both have that paternal quality that makes them such good man-managers. The fact that neither could put Morrison on the right track has got to be a massive concern.

We keep saying that it’s the last chance saloon for Morrison. While he probably still has a few lives left yet, the ending to this script is way too predictable right now.