Morgan makes up with the Hammers

“I’ve tried not to get involved in all this Carlos Tevez affair,” Morgan stressed.

“I don’t think the players knew fully what was happening. From our point of view we just thought West Ham got more points than us and stayed up.”

He admitted he had hoped United might be reinstated into the Premier League.

“We’ve got a chairman who is a very clever man and a shrewd man. He’s proved that with the businesses he’s got. His heart is in Sheffield United. He’s not going to keep pursuing things and pushing and pushing if he didn’t really believe,” Morgan stressed.

“The players know what the chairman is like and the players thought there was a chance we might get reinstated but the longer it goes on you think to yourself, the fixtures have come out, it’s not going to happen.”

He added: “We were all deeply hurt by what happened, I think towards the end we were surprised as well. Towards the end we didn’t think we were going to go down. Things happened, things changed and we did.

“The mood is good, pre-season has been good. I think the training aspect has been fantastic. We’ve got a new manager and everybody came back wanting to impress. Some who weren’t in favour last year are starting with a clean slate.”

Manager Bryan Robson’s first game in charge is at home to Colchester United today and he was relishing the prospect.

“I felt when I was at West Brom that it took a lot to pick the lads up, to get them going in the pre-season. They were still feeling really disappointed and sorry for themselves. Since I’ve been at this club the players haven’t been like that.”