Andy Morrison - Playing Legacy

Playing Legacy

Morrison is remembered by Manchester City fans as one of their best-ever captains, and was voted so in the club's official magazine. Only Roy Paul and Tony Book were deemed to be better captains than him. The magazine also listed Morrison second in a list of hard men, behind Mike Doyle but above the likes of Stuart Pearce and Gerry Gow. Some feel that it was Morrison's leadership skills and ability to get the players around him to raise their game that enabled Manchester City to return to the Premier League after their fall into Division Two. In an interview with the BBC on 23 September 2005, Joe Royle spoke of his sympathy for Nottingham Forest, a club which, like Manchester City, had fallen two divisions. He said, "Big clubs in that division are a scalp and everyone wants to beat them. We had that at City and it was hard for us, but we got the hang of it. The catalyst for us was signing Andy Morrison. He was the man for the job and the man for the division. He dragged us up kicking and screaming. He is the kind of player that Forest need – if they can find somebody like him. We only got him because of his injury record, and because he had had a major fall-out with the manager at Huddersfield. He was as strong as they come and feared nobody – he played a big part in turning things round for us."