Fall from Grace – Jody Morris
At the turn of the century, Jody Morris was attempting to edge his way into a Chelsea side who had recently experienced domestic and European success. The central midfielder clearly had a lot of potential, he was a fighter and his work rate and hunger made up for the fact that he lacked height and physical presence. At 5ft 5in, it was inevitable that comparisons to the legendary Dennis Wise would be made. So how did Jody Morris experience a monumental fall from grace?
It all started going wrong for Morris in 2003. The midfielder rejected an offer of a five-year deal with Chelsea, instead opting to join Leeds. However with the club short of money he was released from Elland Road after just 12 appearances and this prompted his career to take a nosedive down the football ladder into the depths of the lower league and out of the bright lights.
Morris has not helped himself throughout his career, often acting as the prime example of a trouble making footballer, he has proved unable to keep himself out of trouble. In 2003, whilst still a Leeds United player, Morris was accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old woman and although the charges were eventually dropped, it is an incident that clearly did the career of the former Chelsea man no good. Couple claims of sexual assault with numerous nightclub brawls and drink driving incidents and you have yourself a footballer who clearly has an attitude problem. Morris was anything but wise off the pitch and this contributed greatly to his downfall.
It is not until you compare Morris with his counterparts in the Premier League that you realise just how much his career has suffered. Morris emerged through the youth ranks at Stamford Bridge with John Terry and claims to be good friends with Premier League stars Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard. Whilst Terry has been leading out England with his partner Ferdinand, Lampard has been touted as one of the world’s best, yet Morris has been slumming it with teams such as Rotherham and Millwall in the depths of the Football League. The former Chelsea man even spent a year without a club in 2007, having trial periods at London clubs Charlton Athletic and Brentford. I wouldn’t have thought this is what he had in mind when he climbed the Wembley steps to collect his F.A Cup Winners medal in May 2000.
Jody Morris is a perfect example of how a player destined for great things at a Premier League side can fall from grace. I am sure that the player would have disappeared from many fans memories if it wasn’t for his recent revival at SPL club St. Johnstone. The Scottish side are most definitely a step up from the likes of Rotherham; however Morris is still far from the dizzy heights of his Premiership counterparts.
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I remember Jody Morris – bit of a thug!
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This just goes to show how much being a trouble maker can affect your career – shame the same didn’t happen to Joey Barton!
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yeah good point – he was arguably worse than Morris and he’s still playing a good standard
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Do you really think that Jody Morris was destined to reach the upper echelons of world football? Granted he was lucky enough to find himself in a Chelsea team winning domestic trophies, but this doesn’t mean that he was destined for greatness. If you look at his international record he only played a handful of times for the under 20′s and if I am correct he never played for the international first team. There is no doubt his off-the-pitch behaviour led to his failings, but at best he would have been playing for a bottom prem team or championship team. For me all Jody Morris will be remembered for is his goal in the 5-0 win over Man Utd and then running away with his trumpet. Ending our unbeaten streak.
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by greatness i didn’t necessarily mean the heights of Lampard or Terry, but playing consistantly in the Premier League week in week out, surely thats a pretty good run at a career and beats playing in the lower divsions and the SPL? I think he had the potential to play in a side like west ham or maybe fulham – he was never going to reach the dizzy heights of others but if you compare a prem career to all the other leagues in the world then surely thats still pretty great?
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