Ravel Morrison: the boy who - just maybe - does not deserve another chance!

With due deference to Jeremy Andrews' article elsewhere on the footballspeak.com website, an article with which anyone of a naturally sympathetic disposition instinctively wants to agree, it really looks as if the club and Ravel have come to the end of the line. Jeremy's is a sympathetic and pragmatic article, but does anyone suppose that the MUFC staff have not considered all this? It's evident that the staff have stood by the lad for a long time, but there have to be limits to anyone's patience. Some of his behaviour has been extremely sinister: the violence and intimidation of gang culture lurk in the background, not a few teenage peccadilloes. If Ravel wishes to move in a professional world, there have to be basic standards of honesty, trust and respect for fellow human beings. The fact that Ravel is outrageously talented as a footballer does not give him carte blanche to transcend all standards of human decency. On a purely professional level, too, there are plenty of outrageously talented young players who never make the grade, because more than talent is required to become a top professional. The likes of Gary Neville were never particularly gifted, but it was his honest professionalism that made him stand apart. The thing that makes MUFC a special club is not simply the talent on show, but the hard-work and team ethic, all in the image of the manager. We all saw that so clearly against Arsenal yesterday. There are plenty of more naturally gifted footballers on display in the EPL than many of SAF's squad, but that does not make them automatically worthy of his attention. Talent and character are the mark of his players. Ravel's behaviour has made the club question whether he has those qualities. For a closer look at the sort of thing we are talking about, see http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jan/21/ravel-morrison-manchester-united?cat=football&type=article The thing that struck me about this article, leaving aside the issue of why Ravel was up in court, was that no-one from MUFC turned up to support him. What does that really tell you? We all feel instinctive sympathy towards Ravel and his background. Some of us even know what it means to grow up in emotional deprivation and social hardship, but Ravel's talent has already given him extraordinary opportunities, with some excellent role models around him to show him the way. The rest is up to him. If he prefers the company of gang culture and sycophants who will only tell him what they think he wants to hear, that is his choice. Poverty and deprivation do not have to lead to criminality of the sort of which Ravel has been accused. Not everyone in Wythenshawe has chosen to go down that path, despite the many inducements and temptations to do so. Let's hope that at some point Ravel recognises this somewhere, even if not at Old Trafford. Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better and maybe he needs to lose virtually everything before he sees the light. Perhaps he never will. He has no better surroundings in which to sort out his life than where he is now, although it may already be too late. We should not allow our natural desire to see talent come to fruition at our own favourite club to obscure the rights and wrongs of natural justice.