Ravel was the biggest waste of talent I ever worked with

Former West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has told Sky Sports that former Hammer Ravel Morrison was the biggest waste of talent he ever worked with in his management career.

Big Sam explained: “He was that good but because of the mental side of his game and his life he couldn’t produce that talent on a regular basis. He was the biggest waste of talent I ever worked with. We had three months where Ravel was the match-winner at West Ham every week.

“Everybody raved about him and there was talk of a new contract and then all of a sudden it went the other way.”

Ravel joined West Ham in January 2012 after Sir Alex Ferguson grew weary of attitude. Morrison made just 12 league starts for West Ham and 6 sub appearances scoring 3 goals. he made 5 Cup starts and one sub scoring another two goals. He made 25 starts for Birmingham while on loan from West Ham, 14 for QPR and just 1 for Cardiff.

He cost West Ham an initial £650,000 transfer fee from Manchester United but that climbed to £1m after £25,000 per first appearance clause was fulfilled. He signed a three and a half year contract on the 31st January 2012 earning him £2.7m in wages some of which was offset by loaning him out.