Former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson was known for his nurturing of young talent and turning them into first team players, and during his time he oversaw the transformation of some of his young prospects into the best players in the game.
The likes of Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, and Paul Scholes to name but a few would cite Fergie as the driving force behind their growth into great players, but it doesn't always work out.
Sometimes, for one reason or another, a player fails to live up their potenital, and Alex Ferguson has suggested that the troubles which eventually prevented Ravel Morrison from breaking into the Manchester United first team were the saddest case of failed potential in his entire career.
Sadly, there are examples of players who have similar backgrounds to Giggs or Cristiano Ronaldo, who, despite enormous talent, just aren't emotionally or mentally strong enough to overcome the hurts of their childhood and their inner demons.
Ravel Morrison might be the saddest case. He possessed as much natural talent as any youngster we ever signed, but kept getting into trouble.
It was very painful to sell him to West Ham in 2012 because he could have been a fantastic player. But, over a period of years, the problems off the pitch continued to escalate and we had little option but to cut the cord.
That decision to part with Morrison was met with anger from most Manchester United fans, as it came at a time when highly rated youngsters Paul Pogba and Zeki Fryers also had left the club to pursue first team possibilities elsewhere.
Zeki Fryers joined Standard Liege so he could join Spurs before being joining Crystal Palace where he was loaned to Rotherham and Ipswich, and Morrison looked to have broken through at West Ham before getting in more trouble and being shipped off to Lazio where he has made two appearances from the bench, so you could say that two out of three ain't bad.
But then again, Paul Pogba was the third.
via The Mirror.
