Manchester United: Ravel Morrison admits to stealing Ferdinand and Rooney's boots to feed his family

Ravel Morrison has admitted that he used to steal and sell on Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney's boots just so he could put food on the table for his family as a youngster.

After graduating from Manchester United's academy, Morrison was tipped for greatness after he was given a ringing endorsement by Sir Alex Ferguson, who allegedly rated him as the best teenager he had ever seen.

And while he would eventually make his senior debut for the Red Devils, his time at the club wouldn't last long before being shipped off to West Ham, making just two more appearances for United.

While his talent on the pitch was unrivalled, issues off the pitch stopped him from progressing with his boyhood club and now the 28-year-old has opened up on what really went wrong for him while talking with Ferdinand on his podcast.

Morrison recalled taking Ferdinand's boots to sell them on just so he could put food on the table, which left the iconic defender to understand his actions after all these years.

And while the pair looked back and laughed at the incident, Morrison revealed his actions were for a good cause.

In a conversation on the FIVE YouTube channel, Morrison said to Ferdinand: ‘Remember I got kicked out of the changing room for thieving your boots?’

Ferdinand responded: ‘Tell me if I’m wrong but you were taking our boots down to Goals to show your mates….’

Morrison then said: ‘Obviously I was on scholar’s wage, I was young.

‘You used to get like £250 for a pair of boots. You take two pairs of boots, you get £500 and go home and buy your family a Chinese or something.

‘You guys used to get like 30 pairs of boots. I didn’t mean it to cause harm but when I saw yours or [Wayne] Rooney’s deliveries, you’d get 20-30 pairs at a time, I was thinking one pair to put some food on the table at home, it wouldn’t be a big problem.’

Speaking in November, Rooney insisted Morrison should have reached the ‘top level’ while revealing how they tried to help him stay focused both on and off the pitch.

'With the younger players it's been well documented about Ravel Morrison,' Rooney explains.

'He was brilliant in training and then he had a few issues and it halted his career.

'We all thought he was going to be top-level. Everyone could see those issues were going to be there. I spoke to him. Gary Neville was trying to get him to live with him. There were different things people tried.'

Source: m.allfootballapp.com