Pogba’s progress shows up wasteful Morrison

London: Just as the scale of the transfer fee required to steal Paul Pogba away from Juventus moved from the merely humongous to the frankly absurd, a tweet was posted by his former Manchester United youth-team colleague Ravel Morrison. It featured him scoring a penalty in a pre-season shoot-out for Lazio, his current club. This was no ordinary penalty.

It was a cheekily chipped ‘Panenka’.

Doing to the Italians what they — or, at least, Andrea Pirlo — had done to his home nation England.

Except, if Morrison’s purpose was to point out that he is operating on the same level as his ex- midfield partner, then his social-media posting had rather the opposite effect.

Anyone viewing it would have sighed at what might have been.

Because never mind Pogba — poised to become the most expensive player in history — when they were together at United, it was Morrison who drew the plaudits.

With his athleticism, balance and over-abundance of skill, he seemed destined to become the heartbeat of United and England.

At 23, he should have ruled the roost at the Euros this summer.

Instead, he was tweeting shots of self-indulgent contributions to pre-season warm-ups.

There is plenty in football that qualifies, but Morrison’s career so far is perhaps the closest definition we have of the word “waste”.

The contrast with Pogba is telling. The Frenchman has developed brilliantly since he left United, moving through the ranks at Juventus, becoming a mainstay of the France team.

Whether he moves to Manchester or Madrid, the financial return will make the pounds 35,000-a-week (Dh168,134) that his agent demanded of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2012 — and led to his moving clubs — look like loose change.

A player about to reap the rewards of knuckling down, grafting, making the most of himself. Which are three qualities nobody would associate with Morrison. At United, he was constantly in trouble with the coaches, who despaired of his laissez-faire attitude, his woeful time-keeping, his aversion to hard work. For years, he was tolerated because of his talent.

But the gathering litany of court cases and proto-gangster posturing stalled his progress.

Ferguson wearied of him. He went to West Ham, where, the hope was, distance from childhood influences would help him focus. It did not.

At Upton Park he occasionally showcased his wonderful skills, but was often disappointing. There were more fall-outs, more posturing, more surly disregard for authority. His immaturity was proving a permanent character flaw.

Eventually his contract at West Ham ended. And no one in England was prepared to take him on. So he went to Italy last summer. It was, he said at the time, a new chapter, a chance to show he had been misunderstood. He began with a bang, scoring twice on debut in a friendly, sending the Lazio fans into raptures, drawing comparisons with the club’s other Englishman: Paul Gascoigne. It did not last.

Soon his coach, Stefano Pioli, was publicly criticising his attitude, his fitness, his reluctance to embrace the culture. While Pogba was pulling up trees in Turin, in Rome Morrison turned out for the first team only three times last season. Now he has been given a start in a pre-season friendly to remind everyone who he is.

Maybe he can prove that he should be the one valued at pounds 100? million. But do not hold your breath. There is nothing in his approach to his work throughout his career that suggests this is an opportunity he will seize and run with.

— The Telegraph Group Limited. 2016