Rio Ferdinand has claimed Ravel Morrison should have become a £100million player - and suggested Manchester United mistakes played a part in his failure to do so.
Morrison was once an integral member of the Red Devils youth team, which also included Paul Pogba, Adnan Januzaj and Jesse Lingard, and helped them with the FA Youth Cup.
Indeed, the playmaker was identified by the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson as the academy's prized asset and he was expected to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and David Beckham.
However a string of off-field issues hindered his progress and the midfielder left Old Trafford in 2012 without making a league appearance, joining West Ham where he also failed to make the grade.
And ex-United star Ferdinand believes several mistakes were made, by both Morrison and the club, which contributed to his failure to make the grade in Manchester.
"I used to tell him to come to my house but Sir Alex wanted me to step away from doing stuff with Ravel because he felt the club could deal with the situation," Ferdinand told the Beautiful Game Podcast.
"But this goes back to my earlier point about Gavin [Rose, Dulwich Hamlet manager]. If Gavin was at Manchester United back then, then I don’t think Ravel slips through the net, I think Ravel becomes a £100m player.
"But there wasn’t someone like that at United then and even now I don’t see people like that at clubs. People from the estates, from the streets with similar backgrounds to these players so they can talk to them.
"I know Ravel was talking to someone [allocated by the club] that was told to look after him, walking this guy from through the park and telling him what he wanted to hear and then going and doing what he wanted to do. because he could get away with it.
"But Gavin is the type of person that would see through it and pull him up straight away to tell him ‘listen, calm yourself down this is how you need to move’ and that’s it.
"It’s a tricky situation sometimes these kids home lives are different from what you know. Yeah we’re all from an estate but once you close doors you don’t know what happens behind there so you need experience to get the best out of someone."
Despite showing glimpses of his talent at West Ham, Morrison failed to hold down a regular starting spot and has since had spells at Birmingham, QPR, Cardiff, Lazio, Atlas, Osterund, Sheffield United and Middlesbrough.
His career is yet to take off but Ferdinand believes the 27-year-old has clear world-class ability.
"Ravel’s talent I’ve always said it I’ve never seen a kid of that age [at] 14,15 years old like it in my life, he was different," Ferdinand added.
"Even if you see his videos now, he sent me some from training at Sheffield United what he was doing to man was nasty still. He was doing mad stuff. the game comes so easy to him, it’s effortless."
