Have your say: Weighing up the pros and cons of Sheffield Wednesday signing Ravel Morrison

Owls boss Darren Moore told media after their 2-1 derby win over Barnsley that a decision would be made over the trialist in the coming days.

Let’s take a look through the talking points..

Ability

There is no doubting the talent that Ravel Morrison has. The 28-year-old was on the verge of an England call-up in 2014 off the back of some incredible performances for West Ham, all this after he was the leading light in Manchester United’s glittering academy.

Wayne Rooney said he had more talent than both Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard at that time, among others, and tells a story of him making Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic look a fool in training when he was just 17.

But for whatever reason, things haven’t quite taken off for him. At all.

After his move to West Ham and a controversial shift out on loan to Birmingham, he showed promise at QPR but has since struggled to settle, not making more than 18 appearances for any of his eight clubs since his QPR loan ended in 2014.

The club that gets anything close to the best out of him has a generational talent on their hands. But time is running out.

Character

There’s been a lot written and said about Morrison’s character and it would be wildly unfair for The Star to pontificate about the attitude of a player it has never spoken to.

Off-field discrepancies have been widely reported but appear to be a long way behind him and he impressed when speaking on Rio Ferdinand’s Five podcast last month, taking a balanced and honest approach to describing his career.

Many commented that it seemed Morrison had matured from the brash young thing that filled newspaper inches earlier in his career.

Character, work rate and attitude are attributes Darren Moore holds high in his list of priorities.

Fitness

The elephant in the room. Moore said last week: “You look at that [free agents], but at this stage of the season in terms of free transfers, you don’t doubt their ability, it’s whether they’re in a position to contribute physically.

“The problem you have with them is that they’ve not trained an awful lot in an environment and usually it takes time to get them up to speed.”

So much of Morrison’s future may lie in how sharp he’s looked in training so far. The timing may well be beneficial from that point of view, given Moore and his coaching staff have two weeks to work on the whole squad and bring Morrison up to speed.

Why not?

In a mixed response to Morrison’s arrival at Wednesday on Twitter, some fans voiced concern at the idea of signing another player whose best days may well be behind him.

But on a short-term deal until the end of the season, with nine games left. Why not? He can be an x-factor player for the Owls and offer something a little different as they attempt to build an unlikely way out of the relegation scrap.

At this stage, two unbeaten, is it a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained? Or will Moore prefer to stick with what he’s got?

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