Morrison charged by the FA over homophobic remark on Twitter

• zocoss

  1 Feb 12, 11:37

  Ravel Morrison seals £650,000 move to West Ham from Manchester United

  • Fee for 18-year-old could rise to £2m with add-ons
  • 'I'm an attacking player and I hope to get fans on their feet'

   

  

  Ravel Morrison could be earning £65,000 a week if West Ham win promotion to the Premier League. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

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  Ravel Morrison signed for West Ham United from Manchester United for an initial £650,000 fee that could rise to £2m including add-ons, with the 18-year-old also agreeing personal terms related to his performance. Sam Allardyce, the West Ham manager, hopes that Morrison can help the Championship leaders to seal automatic promotion to the Premier League following relegation last season.

  The deal finally went through at around 8.30pm after Morrison passed a medical. Morrison's salary will start at around £12,000 a week with this possibly increasing to as much as £65,000. The rising sliding scale will be triggered only if West Ham regain their Premier League status. Then, after a certain number of top-flight starts, his salary would rise incrementally towards the £65,000 ceiling.

  Morrison's contract at United was to expire in the summer and they decided to sell now rather than having to go before a tribunal at the end of the season. United had reportedly offered Morrison a new deal which the player was considering when West Ham's bid was accepted.

  As Morrison had his medical with West Ham, Allardyce said: "Ravel is a talented lad and if he really wants to be a player then we will help him as much as we can along the way. Perhaps a change of environment will be beneficial to him and help him make that step up to first-team football quicker than perhaps would have been the case at Manchester United. There is no doubt he has exceptional talent."

  Although Ferguson and the coaches at United's Carrington training base admired Morrison's technical ability, the midfielder's first‑team chances were limited to three Carling Cup appearances and he has also attracted attention for a number of off-field issues.

  "I'm really pleased to have signed," Morrison said. "The move has happened very quickly and I'm looking forward to hopefully moving up to the Premier League with West Ham soon. I'm an attacking player and I'm hoping to get the fans on their feet."

• Jacky Woo

  1 Feb 12, 20:37

  fark lar. sell your most promising youth player?

  why cant just pay him for 30k a week? what if he turn out to be hugely successful and england international in a few years time? how short sightedness is the united hierarchy.

• Bus&Soccer l0v3r (VO3x 1)

  1 Feb 12, 21:53

  srry i dun know him
  
  i only know Pogba

• RalliartTurbo

  1 Feb 12, 22:41

  Originally posted by Bus&Soccer l0v3r (VO3x 1):

  srry i dun know him
  
  i only know Pogba

  
  Pogba is worth a new contract rather than losing him to United's European or domestic rivals.

• zocoss

  1 Feb 12, 23:53

  Ravel Morrison seeks salvation with West Ham after rejection by Manchester United

  The self-titled Academy of Football tends to produce its own starlets. On transfer deadline day it gambled on one from the mighty Manchester United youth factory as 18-year-old Ravel Morrison laid down his baggage at West Ham in the hope of turning his life around.

  

  Fresh start: Ravel Morrison has joined West Ham for a reported fee of £650,000, which could rise £1million

   

   

   

  One of the most gifted United young midfielders since Paul Scholes, Morrison dropped from the Premier League to the Championship and passed from the care of Sir Alex Ferguson to Sam Allardyce, the West Ham manager: a mentor to some of the game’s more awkward and unusual characters.

  Morrison passed his medical on Tuesday after an initial reported fee of £650,000 rising to £1million had been agreed with United. Newcastle United was his other possible refuge but for once he is thinking several steps ahead. Sources close to the deal say Morrison is desperate to play regularly to help keep him out of trouble – and believes he can achieve a regular starting place in a side who are hot favourites for promotion.

  Either way, Morrison’s rejection by Manchester United is a rare setback for a club who have framed their identity around guiding the best boys from the training fields of Carrington to the turf of Old Trafford.

  But Morrison is not like Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville or Scholes. Witness intimidation and a dispute with his girlfriend that ended with her mobile phone being thrown through a window are on his police file and magistrates have warned him he will go to jail if he offends again.

  Away from the courts Morrison was frequently AWOL for training and used Twitter to express disdain for a club awards dinner and anger at what he saw as his lack of first-team opportunities. Ferguson’s coaches gave up on him: a rare acceptance of defeat at a club where youth cultivation is a religion.

  Morrison scored twice in the 2011 FA Youth Cup win over Sheffield United and dazzled observers with his poise and skill. Two days later he was being fined £600 for throwing his girlfriend’s phone. At 15 he scored in an FA Youth Cup tie against Chelsea and made his first-team debut in 2010 in the Carling Cup against Wolves.

  But his disciplinary lapses blocked his path and now Allardyce has invited him to settle in a stable team coasting towards promotion. He said: “Ravel is a talented lad and if he really wants to be a player then we will help him as much as we can along the way. Perhaps a change of environment will be beneficial to him and help him make that step up to first-team football quicker than perhaps would have been the case at Manchester United. There is no doubt he has exceptional talent.”

  West Ham have always cleared space for free spirits and mavericks. Ian Bishop and Paolo Di Canio are just two examples of Upton Park idols who tended towards nonconformity.

  Allardyce is a mostly functional coach who likes to roll a dice around the margins. He added Jay-Jay Okocha to a long-ball Bolton team and took Joey Barton to Newcastle. At West Ham he has dismissed the old conceit of losing prettily in favour of a more muscular and calculating approach. Over the summer — before Morrison and Ricardo Vaz Te entered his thoughts — Allardyce recruited the likes of Abdoulaye Faye, Kevin Nolan, Papa Bouba Diop and John Carew.

  This romance-kicking pragmatism has propelled West Ham to the top of the Championship and the acquisition of Morrison is a cheap investment in the kind of midfield artistry the Hammers will need if they come back up in May. The initial risk runs to £650,000 and £10-£15,000 a week in wages. There is little danger of Morrison upsetting the promotion push. If he returned to his old ways the senior pros would merely ostracise him and plough on with their jobs.

  Seldom do United’s educational and coaching programmes run into such insurmountable obstacles. Boys from deprived or troubled backgrounds are often transformed at Carrington. Many move successfully to lower league clubs.

  The FA Youth Cup-winning player is especially valued. Matt Busby’s babes won the competition five times and Ferguson’s class of ’92 was the launch pad for David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Gary Neville and Giggs. Scholes and Phil Neville were also of that generation.

  Morrison leaves behind Will Keane, Ryan Tunnicliffe and Paul Pogba, team-mates from last year’s victory over Sheffield’s Blades. The idea is that playing regularly will be his salvation while the move to London liberates him from the bad influences of his youth.

  There will be no entourage heading south, his aides say: just a teenager with a nose for trouble and the kind of fluent, instinctive skills United have built a tradition around. Big Sam Allardyce loves a test. He will want the good angels on his side.

• omgukilledkenny

  2 Feb 12, 20:23

  Not even a proven player and he wants 30k already. Imagine how much he'll demand IF he can break into the first team.

• Jacky Woo

  2 Feb 12, 20:27

  yea his head is not quite right, but if he turn out to be as good as scholes, I really dunno what to say.

• zocoss

  8 Feb 12, 11:30

  West Ham new boy Morrison in tweet storm after homophobic comment

   

   

  

  Announcing himself: Ravel Morrison left Manchester United for West Ham on deadline day

   

   

   

  Ravel Morrison has started his West Ham career by writing a homophobic message on Twitter.

  The midfielder, 19, who moved from Manchester United on deadline day in a £650,000 initial deal, responded angrily after been antagonised on the social networking site.

  He has since deleted the tweet.

  West Ham did not wish to comment, but a spokesman for The Justin Campaign, which aims to tackle homophobia in football, told goal.com: ‘It’s disappointing to hear that yet another professional footballer in England has used homophobic language.’

   

• Eelyn82

  8 Feb 12, 19:56

  We don't have space for him in the first team.He can develop his potential elsewhere...

• zocoss

  9 Feb 12, 10:55

  Morrison told to explain homophobic tweet to West Ham staff

   

  

  Controversy: New West Ham player Morrison has sparked outrage with an offensive tweet

   

   

   

  Ravel Morrison will be hauled in front of senior West Ham staff on Thursday to explain the homophobic comments he made on Twitter.

  Morrison had a day off on Wednesday so will be asked to explain  his comments to  non-football personnel, including club secretary Andrew Pincher, on Thursday.

  The FA have written to the 19-year-old, who has yet to play for West Ham following his £650,000 move from Manchester United, asking for his ‘observations’ on the matter. Morrison has until Monday to respond.
  

  The midfielder has deleted the offending tweet, but still faces an FA charge.

  The FA’s guidelines on social networking, published earlier this year, state: ‘Any comments which are deemed improper, bring the game into disrepute, or are threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting may lead to disciplinary action.

  ‘Comments which are personal in nature or could be construed as offensive, use foul language or contain direct or indirect threats aimed at other participants are likely to be considered improper.’

  
  

• zocoss

  16 Feb 12, 11:43

  WEST HAM'S RAVEL MORRISON CHARGED BY FA FOR TWITTER REMARK

  

   

  Ravel Morrison, 19, moved to West Ham from Manchester United on transfer-deadline day

   

  WEST HAM midfielder Ravel Morrison has been charged by the FA over an alleged homophobic remark on Twitter.

   

  Morrison, 19, who moved to Upton Park from Manchester United on transfer-deadline day, is reported to have made the comment in response to another Twitter user.

  The FA wrote to Morrison last week for his observations on the matter and have now formally charged him.

  A statement on the FA website read: “Ravel Morrison has been charged under FA Rule E3 for use of abusive and/or insulting words including a reference to a person’s sexual orientation.”