Championship

RAVEL MORRISON has pleaded for clubs to ignore his wild child past.The former Manchester United wonderkid is targeting a move back to the Championship – but wants to put the past behind him.Ravel Morrison has pleaded for clubs to ignore his wild pastCredit: GettyMorrison was hailed as a whizz-kid of the Old Trafford youth system when Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge but he quickly earned the reputation of an unreliable ‘bad boy’.He made what turned out to be disappointing move to West Ham and then Lazio, where he only managed eight appearances in 2015.Loan spells at Birmingham City, QPR, Cardiff City, Sheffield United, Derby County and Mexican side at Atlas also didn’t work out.But Morrison is wiser than the kid who got into trouble, ended up in court and left Old Trafford on a sour note.READ MORE FOOTBALL NEWSBack in September, the 32-year-old signed for the 14th club of his rollercoaster career – Precision FC in Dubai in the UAE second division. He told The Athletic: “Even now, I can guarantee that if I signed for a club in England, the headline in all the newspapers would be something negative.“If another player at United gets into trouble, he’s always ‘the next Ravel’. Anything that anyone does wrong gets linked to my name. “It pops up on my Instagram and I’m thinking, ‘Oh, not again… how many years is this now?’.Most read in FootballCASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITSAt West Ham, there were occasions when he missed training because he had been up all night on his PlayStation.And he was accused of attitude issues, timing problems and appeared in court for witness intimidation and criminal damage while at Man Utd in 2011.Ravel Morrison reveals he used to steal boots from Man Utd dressing room to sell and feed his family Morrison was also once fined £7000 by the FA for alleged homophobic comments made on Twitter.But homesick Morrison has set his mind on moving back to England and having one last crack at the second-tier again, where he has already played for six different sides.He said: “I do believe I can play in the Championship — easy. The frustrating thing is I’m not getting the opportunity.It all stems from my own mistakesMorrisonThe Athletic“My agent has spoken to a lot of sporting directors, chief scouts and heads of recruitment, and we’ve got really close to an agreement.“Then they get the manager’s opinion and it becomes, ‘Ah, but he’s done this, he’s done that’, and they are speaking about things that happened when I was a kid. “Time has moved on, it’s over a decade ago. But it’s crazy sometimes how people don’t move on.”“So many people have formed an opinion about me, but those opinions are based on things that happened 10 to 15 years ago. “I’m 32 now. I’ve played football around the world and had a good career. I’m not a kid of 16 or 17 anymore.“But then again, I have to look at myself because it all stems from my own mistakes. I did some things that were wrong and I can’t blame anyone but myself.”He has won 20 caps for Jamaica since switching allegiances in 2020.Morrison, who shares the same hometown as Marcus Rashford in Wythenshawe, has his eyes set on returning to where it all began at Carrington.Read More on The SunSpeaking on the Undr the Cosh podcast last month, Morrison said: “I’ve got my B licence now – I did it in the summer.'”I want to get into some type of coaching after I retire. That’d be good. I’d like to go back to United!” More

STEVE COOPER tops the list of managerial targets Middlesbrough want to replace Michael Carrick.The Championship side announced on Wednesday that the ex-Manchester United and England midfielder had been axed.Steve Cooper has been linked with a shock return to management with MiddlesbroughMichael Carrick was sacked by Boro this weekCarrick, 43, and his assistants Jonathan Woodgate and Graeme Carrick – his younger brother – have also departed the club.That decision was made by chairman Steve Gibson following a four-week end-of-season review by the club’s hierarchy after their dismal second half of the campaign.Carrick, who was the division’s longest-serving manager, led Boro from the 21st in the table in October 2022 to the play-offs.That was followed by an eighth-placed finish and a run to the League Cup semi-finals but, despite a positive first half of this season, they eventually ended a disappointing tenth.READ MORE FOOTBALL NEWSThat has been enough to convince the club to look elsewhere.SunSport understands that Cooper, out of work since he was sacked following a brief and ill-fated stint at Leicester in November, is among the top candidates Boro want to speak with.He shone in the Championship at Swansea City by leading them to consecutive play-off finishes.And he surpassed that at Nottingham Forest, achieving legendary status by guiding them back to the Premier League via the play-offs in 2022.Most read in FootballCASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITSCooper was axed in December 2023 and replaced by Nuno Espirito Santo.Ex-Bournemouth and Wolves manager Gary O’Neil, who spent four years as a player at the Riverside, is another name among the favourites along with former Luton man Rob Edwards.Middlesbrough fans will agree with Carrick sacking and there’s a perfect man ready to replace him Expert’s viewBY GARY STONEHOUSE (North East Football Reporter and Boro season ticket holder)FINALLY the inevitable has happened – but what took Middlesbrough so long?The decision to sack Michael Carrick now – four weeks after the season finished – does feel a bit too little, too late.The ex-Manchester United man’s time at the Riverside should have been done back in February after a dire run of six defeats in seven games.At that point the prospect of going up through the play-offs was still a real possibility.Instead, Steve Gibson kept faith and, despite a brief little false dawn of results, we’ve allowed rivals Sunderland to take advantage of what was probably the best chance of achieving promotion out of this league that there will be for a while.For all of those pointing to the fact that he lost “his best player” Emmanuel Latte Lath in January – the striker’s exit was supposed to be last summer.That’s why they got Tommy Conway in early and, fair play, when Boro failed to get the money they wanted for Latte Lath they held on to him until the window.The loss of Ben Doak was also critical, and that coupled with the above sale meant all the pace was taken out of Carrick’s team.But that was his biggest problem, his stubbornness to have a Plan B. Pretty, boring, pass, pass, tip, tip – Middlesbrough became far too easy to play against.The panic stations started to ring when the Riverside was empty long before the final whistle in several home games – fans were seemingly even past the point of caring enough to boo at the final whistle following several disappointing displays and results.This is a move best for everybody – especially Carrick himself.He has done well, and the loss of experienced Aaron Danks as coach to Bayern Munich has maybe had a bigger impact than any of us thought.But once rumours of fall-outs over transfer targets etc began to surface in January there was only going to be one-way this ended if promotion wasn’t achieved.He can still leave with his reputation intact and will be in the running for plenty of other jobs – hopefully after a PR class or two.You always got the impression he didn’t think much of the media – except until the pressure was on in his final weeks and we finally got to see a little of his funny and warm character.But the place, and Carrick himself probably, needed something new. And for my money, the man to provide that lift that the whole club needs would be Steve Cooper. More