In this exclusive interview with Sky Sports, Cambridge United's Michael Morrison talks to Adam Bate about wonder goals and weeing dogs, Michael Olise and Rio Ferdinand, as he reflects on a career that has brought him back to his the club he left as a teenager
Wednesday 7 August 2024 07:58, UK
Michael Morrison was 17 when he made his debut for Cambridge United in the National League. Now 36, he has just spent pre-season in Portugal preparing for another season in League One with the club. Nobody is more proud to see the club transformed.
He laughs at some of the memories of that first stint, almost two decades ago. "I remember one time, dogs weeing on the drinks bottles. That is the sort of environment that it was at that point. We are no longer in the park," Morrison tells Sky Sports.
"There is a state-of-the-art training ground. That has had a massive impact in terms of gym work, recruitment, nutrition, even analysis. Before this, we were in an old cricket hut, really, and the entrance to the pavilion was doubling up as the analysis room."
The very fact that Morrison was thrust into first-team action as a teenager reflected Cambridge's struggles. Just relegated and with only six professionals left, they had to bolster that with the best talent from an academy they had been forced to shut down.
"The club was in real dire straits. I remember there being about 20 trialists at one point. In hindsight, it was the best thing that could have happened to me because it gave me the opportunity. There I was, a 17-year-old centre-half in the National League."
He had to learn quickly. Any harrowing encounters? "Leo Fortune-West against Doncaster. An education." But now it is Morrison who is the grizzled old warrior and he is relishing being back. "It has come full circle for me," he says. "I appreciate it a lot."
Meeting him at a hotel near his family home in Solihull, his circumstances are very different these days. "When I was 17, my friends would come to the games. Now they bring their kids!" Family is the reason why he left Portsmouth to return to Cambridge.
He was staying in rented accommodation on the south coast. "I was going back to Portsmouth one evening and my kids were like, oh, are you going back to your house, Daddy? That was a red flag. It was a trigger for me. I was like, okay, this is not right."
Cambridge is easier for him. "I will stay at my mum and dad's or we will go to see family." But the fact that his base is now in the Midlands reflects the fact that this is a career that has taken him to Leicester, Birmingham and beyond before bringing him back home.
Even while still a teenager at Cambridge, he was sent for trials at Preston, Everton and Chelsea, attracting a lot of interest as a young defender playing regularly in the testing environment of the fifth tier. In particular, his two-week stay at Newcastle stands out.
"Glenn Roeder pulled me in the office and was like, listen, you have done really well, but I am comparing you to Rio Ferdinand and you are not quite at that level yet. I remember leaving the room thinking they will not be signing too many centre-halves then!"
Nigel Pearson, on Newcastle's staff at the time, remembered him and eventually took Morrison to Leicester, where he was part of a title-winning team. "I loved Nigel but I was scared of him!" The pair did a course together recently and Pearson was happy to play on it.
"I found myself wondering whether I could call him Nigel now. When we went out afterwards, I called him Nige, and he joked, 'I did not say you could call me Nige, only Nigel.' He has been brilliant for me. I have found him to be somebody I can lean on."
Chris Powell is another major influence, having been a team-mate at Leicester and his manager at Charlton, where Morrison won another promotion. "A massive figure in my career. We still speak." Gary Megson's impact was rather different but just as significant.
A move to Sheffield Wednesday was complicated when Alan Irvine was sacked within weeks of his arrival. "Megson came in and straight away he was not having me." Having been asked to train with the youth team, he was soon told to stay at home altogether.
"It was the first real setback. I went home to my parents, back to Cambridge for the first time in years, just to take stock. My career was at a real crossroads. I had started well at Leicester but where did I go from here? What was my next move? Where was I going"
Morrison looks back on it as a "fight or flight moment" in his journey. "It was a critical point in my career, one of those things can make you a better player and person. I became more focused, determined not to waste the opportunity. I decided to fight."
Under Powell, Morrison helped Charlton beat Sheffield Wednesday to the League One title the following season, including a victory over his former club at Hillsborough. "Sort of a redemption moment. I think I proved a lot of people at Sheffield Wednesday wrong."
During the latter part of a long playing career that has also seen him captain Birmingham and Reading, Morrison has studied leadership, securing qualifications as a coach and sporting director, and has had time to reflect on what made those sides successful.
"It is chicken and egg when it comes to culture," he explains. "Are you winning because everyone is feeling good or is everyone feeling good because you are winning? But I do think a blend of youth and experience is key. Who do the younger ones learn from?
"Yes, there are coaches. But it is the leadership group among the players who set the example and it is not always the oldest players who are the most important in that. Sometimes, a younger player can have a lot of social power within the group.
"We had Michael Olise at Reading. Was he going to look up to me as an older Championship centre-half? Probably not because he did not aspire to be me. But Lucas Joao was this real flair player, the main man up front, so I tried to influence Lucas.
"I made sure he was in the gym every day, always on time, because the young players followed him. He might not have even realised but I knew that Michael would take it better if it came from him. It would transfer. It was a better way of influencing him."
Morrison reflects on the lessons that he has learned about change-management too. Twice in his career, he has seen that fail. Leicester brought in Paulo Sousa to replace Pearson. Birmingham dispensed with Gary Rowett to bring in Gianfranco Zola.
On both occasions it was a challenge because the players believed what they were already doing was working. "You need to understand whether people are ready for change. I think that's one of my biggest takeaways from my playing career," he says.
Zola, in particular, lost his way. "There were a few red flags. At one point, he brought Paul Robinson on at right-back. I don't think you would ever put Paul Robinson at right-back. The messaging became really disorganised. His staff were not on the same page."
At Cambridge, Morrison is convinced that there is a lot right, even if the challenge in League One looks to be a daunting one. He is reunited with Garry Monk, his former boss at Birmingham, and believes the club is fortunate to have such a high-quality manager.
"I have been really impressed working with him second time around because I have seen him evolve as a coach. He is slightly more aggressive with the pressing but the values are the same. He is probably a better manager now but he is in League One.
"When you think about Garry and the stuff that he has had to manage at Birmingham and Sheffield Wednesday, it must be a breeze for him being at Cambridge because it is so well run. The chairman is a supporter and he takes a real interest in the club."
There is praise for sporting director Ben Strang, who is grateful for sharing some detail around the club's recruitment process. "Garry is open with me too. That is helping my understanding as a coach." Most of all, it is the environment at Cambridge.
"There is a big emphasis on the culture. Everyone talks about the 'No Dickheads' policy from the All Blacks but you have to show that. It is one thing saying it is a family club but do clubs really show it? We have just had a big barbecue for family, friends and staff."
Morrison clearly takes huge pride and satisfaction from his role within the group. "I feel like I am able to have some influence off the pitch as well. I enjoy that part of it. That is probably why I want to stay in the game. I really like helping the younger players here."
This old favourite can still play a bit too. He wants to improve his goal tally this season but he is unlikely to score a better goal than the only one he registered last season, an extraordinary solo effort against Shrewsbury that won League One goal of the month.
"I could not blast it. I had no energy left," he says. "But it was a really special moment. So many nice messages. Old coaches were telling me they had taught me everything I knew. Former team-mates were asking where that had been for the past 20 years."
Part of him wants to keep playing until he is 40. Another knows that he is readying himself for the next step. "I would love to be a manager." In the meantime, the motivation to continue comes not just from his love of the game but his love for the club he plays for.
"You just want a purpose as an older player and Cambridge is so important to me," he explains. "I care about this club. My family and friends go to the games so I feel like I am not just playing for the team. That makes a big difference. I feel that connection."
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