'We can win promotion': Former Manchester United hopeful Ravel Morrison on life at a second division UAE club

Much-travelled former Manchester United star on life at his new club in Dubai

Ravel Morrison is early for the interview. Which is the first preconception smashed.

Tardiness was always said to be one of those things he just did, one of many infractions that reportedly put him offside with coaches at some of the world’s leading football clubs.

And hard to manage, of course. That is another one. And yet, here he is, sat waiting dutifully, even while his coach is busy elsewhere, running some of the other players from Morrison’s new team through their paces on the training field.

Now aged 31, Morrison is playing for Precision Football in the UAE Second Division, which is the third level of the game in this country. He joined at the start of this season, after ending his time with DC United in Major League Soccer in the United States.

His task this morning is to help publicise the team and, just as importantly, their high-spec training facility at Ibn Battuta Mall in Jebel Ali. He seems genuinely baffled by the idea he should be considered their star attraction, and bashful about having to be, too.

At one point, while he is waiting patiently to be spoken to, he charges off to get Harry Arter and drags him to speak instead. Or at least stand in shot and do the interview together, to share the load.

Arter, after all, played well over 200 matches in the midfield for Premier League side Bournemouth, in a career that also included 19 caps for the Republic of Ireland.

For a side in the third tier of a competition structure that is still very much in its infancy, and who play their home matches on a converted car park on the roof of a shopping mall, Precision have a ludicrous roster of players.

So, how did Morrison end up here? Well, that is the first preconception that does prove true: he loves football, and will go anywhere for a game.

Having bought a property in Dubai, the former Manchester United, West Ham United, Derby County and Lazio playmaker had spent much time in the city. He would spend his off-seasons from DC United in the city, and play informal pick-up matches with his mates at Precision.

The facility’s founder and chief executive, Sonny Cobbs, is a former professional from the UK himself, and they got talking.

“I knew Sonny as I was playing here on a Tuesday night, and was chatting to him about football,” Morrison says.

“In the last conversation we had before I went home, he was saying they had just been promoted and he was building a team. It was interesting.

“I had just left DC United. [Going back to the UK to find a new club] was the idea, but this was a good set-up, and I know some of the players here. They all said they were enjoying it here.”

Morrison appreciates it is low-key in comparison to what he has experienced before in his career. That is part of what appeals to him.

“I did come over here and train in the off-season when I was at DC United and you can see the team has big potential, and Dubai is a place which attracts players,” Morrison said.

“I think you can just get on with it and enjoy football. We come in every day and have all the facilities, including ice baths, and upstairs [where spectators can eat dinner in a restaurant whose terrace overlooks the main playing field] is very nice. Everything about the club is very good.”

Cobbs, who is also the manager of Precision’s league team, said his first approach to Morrison to join his side was more or less in jest. They stayed in touch, though, and he was thrilled when the player himself got in touch to ask if the offer to join was still open.

He is aware there is plenty of received wisdom when it comes to Morrison, but Cobbs says the negative stuff is “completely wrong”. He terms him “a great individual, shy,” and “a really good role model on and off the pitch from what I’ve seen”.

“He is a lad that loves football,” Cobbs says. “The pressure hasn’t come from himself. At the end of the day, it has probably been hard being Ravel Morrison for the past 20 years, with everyone mentioning your name and Manchester United.

“He is just a guy who wants to play football, and that is what we have given him the platform to do.”

Morrison has had some burdens to bear since his teenage years. Famously, he was labelled the best player Sir Alex Ferguson had seen for his age when he was coming through the ranks at Manchester United.

“A brilliant footballer,” Ferguson was quoted as saying when Morrison was subsequently moved on to West Ham United. “Brilliant ability. Top-class ability. [But he] needs to get away from Manchester and start a new life.”

He tried that. He got away from Manchester several times, and started plenty of new lives. His pro career has taken in London, Cardiff, Rome, Guadalajara in Mexico, Ostersund in the frosty north of Sweden, The Hague in the Netherlands, and Washington DC.

For someone who reputedly used to skive training sessions at Manchester United so he could knock about with his pals in Wythenshawe, that constitutes a good look round.

So where has he felt most at home on his magical mystery tour? “Dubai,” he says, before flashing a grin at his new coach, hoping he has hit on the right answer.

“Back home, where you have your family and your friends,” he concedes is the most truthful answer. “But here, the staff and the players, we have all gelled together, we are on a winning streak, and you can see everyone is together.

“If we all stick together and carry on doing what we are doing, there is no reason we can’t get promoted when the end of the season comes.”

Morrison was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when he was still at school. Its symptoms can involve having an excess of energy, but a lack of attention span, making focusing on things difficult – like having a Ferrari engine for a brain, but with BMX brakes.

Understanding of the condition is hardly universal anywhere, not least in professional football. It would be entirely fair for him to excuse away any or all of his past misdemeanours as being down to a misunderstanding of him.

“No,” he says plainly, when asked if it has ever frustrated him, living with ADHD in a world where the condition is often misunderstood. “Just get on with it, and you can take me how you want to take me.”

He says he would be glad to guide any young players who have ADHD, saying: “I am always here to help anyone.”

“I didn’t understand it much, but I had to go and see someone every couple of weeks, and they would sit down with me and my family,” he says of his own diagnosis. “It was due to distractions and losing concentration.”

His keenness to help out is typical, according to Cobbs’ interactions with him. “He can be there to put his arm around players to help them, or with coaches, encouraging them with small word in the dressing room, and that really helps the team,” the coach says.

So, with the majority of the Morrison myths busted, there is one that still stands out: is he really as talented as they say he is?

“In training, he embarrasses some of the players, and everyone wants to be on his teams,” says Cobbs, whose side play their next league match at home against Gulf FC on Friday evening, 9pm kick off.

“And he is a winner. As soon as every single person trains, whether it be five-a-side, seven-a-side, or a keep-ball possession drill, they want to win. If you lose, I make them do a run.

“Rav wants to win. He trains at match pace, and you can see the quality shines through. The other players are brilliant as well, but Rav does some phenomenal things that I even have to get my head down and have a little laugh about myself. Some of the defenders want to stay away from him in training.”