What a few weeks for Ravel Morrison. He makes his West Ham debut, rattles in a few goals, scores a spectacular effort against Tottenham, gets picked for the England Under 21s, makes his debut in San Marino and then scores two goals last night against Lithuania. It doesn’t get a lot better than that.
Before virtually every World Cup finals there is always one young player who manages to fight his way into the squad. In 1990 it was Gazza. Could it be Ravel Morrison in 2014?
There’s no doubt that there will be some stiff competition for midfield places and there are plenty of players ahead of him, but if his season carries on like this he will be difficult to avoid. I just hope Sal and the senior players can keep his feet on the ground. Even the most level headed player might get his head turned by the kind of publicity young Ravel is getting, I suppose, but how he reacts to the current dollop of plaudits will go a long way to informing us as to whether he is the real deal or not.
It was great to see England put on a real show last night and play with the kind of flair which has so often been lacking. Andros Townsend proved that his debut wasn’t just a one off and ran Poland ragged down the right, while Wayne Rooney put in the kind of performance that we wondered if we might ever see again. OK, defensively we looked somewhat frail at times, and Joe Hart always makes me nervous, but when we were attacking we looked very classy indeed. I thought Leighton Baines, when attacking, did more than Ashley Cole has done in his last ten games. He gives us real width and is able to put in the kind of slide-rule dangerous balls which strikers love to get on the end of. I thought Danny Wellbeck looked very good last night, even if his final control often lets him down. Perhaps he is the one who is vulnerable to a Ravel Morrison challenge.