02 February 2024 , 21:40
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Steve Morison used to own a greyhound called Messi and work as a paper shredder - now he’s planning to rip it up again at Sutton United.
In his previous incarnation as a rampaging centre-forward, Morison once formed a syndicate with fellow striker Grant Holt at Norwich. And if you ever wanted to know who would come out on top in a showdown between Messi and Pele, we found out 11 years ago.
Morison and Holt’s whippet Muskerry Messi, to give the hound its full name, came second at Monmore in a race where Riverside Pele trailed in fifth behind the electric rabbit. The Millwall legend wound down his dream of training top dogs and is now trying to save Sutton in the race to the bottom of the League.
He suffered his first defeat in charge at Gander Green Lane in midweek, but the home game with Doncaster is a big chance to drag fellow strugglers deeper into the quicksand. Deadline day was busy in Formula One but subdued at the sharp end of League Two - while the biggest move was Lewis Hamilton's switch from Mercedes to Ferrari, there were not many signs of Max Verstappen signing up for a dart at Crawley or Fernando Alonso taking Barrow for a spin.
“We got our business done early,” said Morison. “I was more interested in what was going on with Lewis Hamilton, to be honest, but it was a quiet day.
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“We’ve had some good performances, which is the key because results normally follow, and it was frustrating to lose against Harrogate the other night when we produced our best numbers in the attacking third. As long as we keep being brave in what we’re trying to do, they are really good players who just need to turn their ability and hard work into points.”
As a player, Morison graced the top six divisions of English football from Premier League to Conference South, and he scored the winner in the first major final at Wembley after it was reopened in 2007 - for Stevenage in the FA Trophy. He liked it so much he went back and buried Millwall’s winner against Bradford in a play-off final 10 years later.
What have you made of Steve Morison's foray into management? Have your say in the comments section
Steve Morison is vying to save Sutton United from relegation (Dan Westwell)But the drop out of the EFL’s 92-club mainstream is a brutal fall. If it’s Sutton’s turn to go down this season, there are no parachute payments in the National League unless you do a sponsored skydive.
“You want to avoid the drop at any level,” said Morison, now 40. “It’s never easy to bounce back up and it’s what drives you and it gives you something to fight for.
“We’re under no illusions, but if you look at the Bournemouth story and where they came from, it shows what you can achieve. And this job knocks spots off getting up at 4am to work for a paper-shredding company, driving all over London in the lorries and training on Tuesday and Thursday nights as a non-League player, which is what happened to me when I was released by Northampton. It was an eye-opener, but it also gave me that little bit of hunger and made me realise I didn’t want to be doing it every week.”
Morison previously spent time as Cardiff City manager (Getty Images)Morison is back in League management, where he was sawn off with indecent haste by Cardiff in 2022, and he has already noticed a change in the landscape. At Forest Green Rovers, the only club below Sutton on the ladder, Troy Deeney - another robust striker in his day - lasted only 30 days as manager.
The jump from poacher to gamekeeper appears to be widening, and Morison observed: “The player and the person are often two completely different things and you just have to find the right balance. You can draw on your experiences as a player - but society has changed and there’s a big lack of communication skills because so much is done online now.
“Sometimes you reach the conclusion that you’re the one who has to make the change and the ‘old school’ isn’t a school any more. As a manager I still have plenty to prove - my whole career as a player was based on proving people wrong and if I can help make Sutton better as a team, that bodes well for everybody. What happened to me at Cardiff is done, water under the bridge.”