Clinton Morrison

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From the Grauniad:

Morrison finds a minder

Amy Lawrence Sunday December 31, 2000

Midway through gushing about Clinton Morrison in the most paternal and affectionate way a manager could ever talk about a player, Alan Smith checked himself and quipped that if he carried on like this, their relationship would sound like a romance.

The bond is certainly an intense one. A couple of months ago they fell out. Morrison, 21, a vibrant talent with ability and attitude to burn, wasn't realising his potential, so Smith taught him a lesson by slapping him on the transfer list. One kick up the backside and a flurry of goals later, Smith is choosing Christmas presents for the boy, taking him out for meals, and putting a great deal of time into nurturing a player he expects to be outstanding once he is fully matured.

Recently Ray Houghton, one of Smith's coaches, admitted they spend more time talking about Morrison than anything else.

Not for nothing is Crystal Palace's prodigious striker teased by his team-mates about being the gaffer's son. It's as if Smith has two quests at Selhurst Park: managing the football team and developing Morrison.

'We have a really good relationship which is a bit more than just manager and player and I have to be careful with the other players that I don't let that go too far,' he adds. He can't hold back too much, though, because he reckons Morrison is a rough diamond well worth polishing but in need of plenty of elbow grease.

'He needs constant management and attention. If he was left alone I think he would go off at a tangent.'

With Morrison hailing from a broken home in south London, Smith has taken it upon himself to guide him. The message seems to be getting through. Morrison, who has just bought a new house for himself, his mum and sister, explains: 'He's made me see different sides to life, like how lucky I am to be a footballer. There are so many people out there who are struggling and we are earning so much money and we're only working two hours a day. Earlier on in the season he thought I wasn't pulling my weight and made me buck up my ideas. He's trying to make me progress into a top player so fair play to him.

'When he put me on the transfer list I didn't know whether I was coming or going. I thought I can only go one of two ways: the wrong way or forward. And I've just gone forward. Since then my game has changed a lot, I've got much stronger and more confident and every time I go out there I have belief in myself that I can score goals.'

Smith's fireworks were always intended as a short, sharp shock (both of them knew full well he was never going to sell his prized asset, more so when the only bids came from Notts County and Cardiff). It turned out to be a turning point after a disastrous start to the season: Palace embarked on a 12-match unbeaten run, spearheaded by Morrison's 11-goal streak. He has been a revelation, as he showed with another strike at Loftus Road yesterday.

Considering the desperate search for strikers afflicting a host of Premiership clubs - the likes of Aston Villa, Newcastle and Tottenham have been scouring the globe for some time now - it is surprising that bright British prospects in the Nationwide League remain overlooked. Morrison's progress can't be ignored for too much longer. Valuing himself conservatively at around the £2.5 million mark, he is eager to play in the Premiership, spurred on by the experience of victories over Leicester and Sunderland this season.

In the next month he has the chance to prove himself at that level again, with an FA Cup trip to the Stadium of Light and a Worthington Cup semi-final against Liverpool. 'I think I could do a job in the Premiership and I'd like to be playing there in the next year or so,' he says. 'That's not to say time is running out but I want a taste of it. My dream would be to play in the Premiership with Palace and I think we've got a good enough team now.'

If they are to make it, Smith is in no doubt about who will lead them there: 'If Clinton is as good as I think he is, and I can mould him into more of a team player, he can get us where we want to go and he can come with us.' Together, they are working on the necessary improvements. Morrison reckons he is playing at 60 per cent of what he hopes he can be one day. And he is absolutely convinced the other 40 per cent will come.

They say that if you look for the coolest, flashiest kid around Selhurst you will find Morrison. Sauntering, strutting, shooting from the lip, he is, as Smith says, 'different'. The manager sees in him something of Ian Wright, another cocksure south London boy blessed with spontaneous skills and honed at Palace. The club have been trying to replace Wright ever since they sold him and Morrison is the closest they have come. 'If I could finish like him then I'd be a top player,' Morrison says. 'I'd do anything to achieve my ambitions and I'm not going to stop until I get there.' He just might.



-- Anonymous, January 02, 2001

Answers

Hope we dont sign this bloke- sounds like a cocky version of LuaX2 (??)- we need a reasonably experienced sriker or theres no point in it.

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2001

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