He is such an enigma and one that fascinates me as much as any player I’ve seen come through.
The thing that always intrigued me is that he seemed to do the hard part of getting through his troubled youth to establish himself as a professional player. After leaving United, when he had a period at Birmingham, West Ham and QPR he looked like he had made that step and from there I expected him to blossom really. He also looked a standout player in the England under 21s at that point.
From there it has all gone wrong. The Big Sam issue has been talked about but even so I would have expected him to establish himself at another club with a manager that would put their arm around him.
You could easily name plenty of other young talents that were regarded as the real deal and then faded into obscurity (Jeffers, McEachran etc) so you could say he just wasn’t as good as we all thought he was. But for me, Ravel’s career feels different.
When you look at his career since he left West Ham and the limited appearances he’s had for the various clubs that have taken a punt on him it seems to paint the picture of someone who does not have the talent to play first class football or someone that has not met the standards of professionalism you would expect from a player.
My guess would be that he’s someone who does not take instructions well and therefore does not earn the trust of the manager and then loses motivation and professionalism very quickly when out of the team.
Just browsing through his Wikipedia page, I think this sentence on his time at Cardiff kind of sums him up
“He was named Man of the Match by
WalesOnline on his first and only start for the club”
I think his only shot at redemption is if a Championship club or lower with the right manager take him on and take an uncompromising approach of starting him in every game for a sustained period for him to find some rhythm on and off the pitch.
It’s unlikely that he will find such a club unless he drops down a few levels. Hopefully Rooney can get something out of him.
