From Oviedo to McGeady to Methven: Lewis Morgan's eye-opening insight into his time at Sunderland

Lewis Morgan spent just six months at Sunderland but it was a tumultuous period that included two Wembley finals and a narrow promotion miss.
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Morgan arrived on loan from Celtic having been the key player in the St Mirren side that stormed to the Scottish Championship title under Jack Ross.

He has since moved to the MLS to join David Beckham's Inter Miami, and has opened up on his Wearside spell in an eye-opening interview with Open Goal.

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From dressing room cliques to the club's controversial ownership, the 23-year-old has given a fascinating insight into what it was like behind the scenes during one of the club's most dramatic seasons.....

Lewis Morgan in action during his Sunderland loanLewis Morgan in action during his Sunderland loan
Lewis Morgan in action during his Sunderland loan

'A bit of a shambles'

Morgan was asked for his reflections on his time at the club, and while on the pitch he arrived at a team in reasonable health, he didn't not feel that was replicated off it.....

"They're a massive club, but when I was there you could tell it was - not from the management or playing side - but the club was a bit of a shambles to be honest.

"I just didn't have a good feel about it. When you were there, it was quite negative. The dressing room wasn't negative but there were groups, so it was a hard team to settle in and play well in.

"It wasn't really a good fit."

'You've got to kind of let him do what he wants'

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Jack Ross took charge of a third-tier club with a wage bill that was still, remarkably, running comfortably in excess of £30 million.

By the time the season began and Morgan arrived in January, that had come down considerably after a series of high-profile departures.

Nevertheless, it remained a dressing room with huge disparities in pay and profile....

"He [Jack Ross] was quite good.

"He got most of the big earners out, as many as he could, but there were so many of them.

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"When you've got boys on forty-odd grand a week in League One, you aren't going to get them out the club.

"Then obviously we had Aiden McGeady. I mean, I don't think English boys knew how to take him.

"He's ruthless, I've never seen anyone that ruthless. He'd come in - and I think we'd drew with Burton or something - and he came into the changing room and said 'yous can't play in front of that? Burton Albion? Wednesday night? One each? Yous will never play any higher than this.'

"Nobody would say anything to him. He would single someone out and everyone was scared of him.

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"For the Scottish boys he was good. There was a few boys down there and I got on well with them, and he [McGeady] still had loads of ability. He was their best player by a mile.

"He's got a temper. In training if things are going his way he'll boot all the balls out the drill, or just stupid things like that.

"But at that point, he's winning games by himself - so you've got to kind of let him do what he wants.

"Jack Ross was always quite good with that.

"He always knew when to stop him."

'Boys just didn't speak to each other'

McGeady has subsequently been removed from the first-team group at Sunderland by Phil Parkinson, though his future remains unresolved.

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Morgan was asked whether the winger had clashed with Lee Cattermole, another hugely influential figure in his final year at the club.

Morgan said it was a reflection of the 'groups' in the dressing room....

"Aye, they did.

"They would never even have conversations with each other, and I think that was one of the main problems at Sunderland - boys just didn't speak to each other.

"There were wee groups of three. Geads knew Chris Maguire and Adam Matthews and they got on really well, but outside of that it was just groups.

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"Cattermole, he wanted to stay at Sunderland and I think they had offered him a pay-up the season before, but he said he wanted to stay and win something with the club.

"I think they'd offered him a good pay-out to leave but he wanted to stay.

"To be fair, he's just an intelligent player.

"If you put him in any other team he's not going to be a standout, but he must have done something to play at that level."

'His calf was sore'

Bryan Oviedo was one of the players from the Premier League era to stay but while there were one or two notable contributions, he often did not play as Reece James and Denver Hume offered greater consistency.

Morgan was blunt on the Costa Rican's impact...

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"Oviedo would be running about the pitch, and would take off halfway through the warm-up and head inside the building saying his calf was sore because he couldn't be bothered training.

"Or if we had an away trip, overnights, he wouldn't go."

'He didn't know anything about football'

Morgan was also asked for his view on the club's ownership, and whether he had much interaction with them during his time at the club...

"Not really.

"When I signed, I met Charlie Methven after I'd signed and to be honest him and the other [Stewart Donald] didn't know the first thing about football. It was just two businessmen running a football club.

"Their expectations and the squad they'd assembled were totally unrealistic. I think if they'd left Jack Ross in charge they'd probably be in the Championship by now.

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"He would have turned it round the same way he turned St Mirren round, but the club was just weird when I was down there.

"It was just not the best place to be with the owners and everything going on.

"Charlie Methven - everyone has seen him on that documentary now.

"He wanted it all to be about himself all the time. He didn't know anything about football from when I spoke to him.

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"Before Wembley he'd be speaking to us and trying to basically help us and give us insight into how we're going to win. I was just like 'you've never played football in your life. Do ten keepy-ups and then speak to me.'

"The owners want to sell it now, but there was just a lot of uncertainty so it was tough to be successful."

‘I warmed up terribly’

Morgan was not selected for the play-off final against Charlton Athletic, but found himself thrust into the action early on after Max Power picked up an injury. Morgan admits he wasn’t ready after the disappointment of finding out he wasn’t playing earlier in the week….

"To be fair I warmed up terribly, I did everything terrible and then two or three minutes into the game Max Power got injured and Jack Ross is like “are you ready to go on?” and in my head I’m like “no, I’m not, I’m not ready”.

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"So that’s probably my biggest regret of my time down there, it wasn’t that I done it intentionally but I just didn’t deal well with being told I wasn’t playing.

“Then the game itself, if we had won that...their first goal the goalkeeper lets the ball go under his foot and goes in the net, we wouldn’t have scored if we had played 10 games that day. It would have just papered over the cracks I think.”