| Kieran Morgan article on 13:52 - Feb 1 with 2231 views | vanrrrr |
We were clearly reading it at the exact same time! Sounds a good lad an as Marti would say. Staying humble! |  | |  |
| Kieran Morgan article on 20:34 - Feb 1 with 1639 views | BrianMcCarthy |
Lovely.
Thanks to you both for posting. |  |
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| Kieran Morgan article on 20:41 - Feb 1 with 1595 views | nix |
Without obviously breaking copyright is there anything particular in the article that's worth knowing for those without a subscription? |  | | |
| Kieran Morgan article on 14:00 - Feb 2 with 1028 views | QPR_Hibs |
Still doesn't work for me. |  |
| "Remember to listen to me but look at her. Don't get it the wrong way round. That would be hideous." |
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| Kieran Morgan article on 14:41 - Feb 2 with 932 views | ngbqpr |
| Kieran Morgan article on 14:00 - Feb 2 by QPR_Hibs |
Still doesn't work for me. |
Likewise.
Sneaky copy & paste someone? |  |
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| Kieran Morgan article on 16:17 - Feb 2 with 785 views | Rodney |
| Kieran Morgan article on 14:41 - Feb 2 by ngbqpr |
Likewise.
Sneaky copy & paste someone? |
Sneaky copy and paste:
“There have been few more transformational comebacks this season than the one currently taking place at Queens Park Rangers.
At the start of this season, the west London club won one of their first 16 league games. They were bottom of the league in late November and at risk of getting cut adrift. But then something switched. Head coach Marti Cifuentes’ team suddenly won eight out of 12. They are now the form team in the second-tier Championship, just six points off the play-off places.
At the heart of this comeback is another story of how quickly fortunes can turn around in football. QPR’s recent run would be unimaginable without the drive of Kieran Morgan in the middle of the pitch.
The 18-year-old midfielder has been a revelation since Cifuentes brought him into the team, providing dynamism, balance and poise; never looking fazed by the challenge QPR faced; adjusting to Championship football as if he had been playing it for years.
The fact that Morgan has been so integral to QPR in recent months is itself a remarkable story. Because 2024 was certainly not easy for him. This time last year, he was a second-year scholar in the Tottenham Hotspur academy, working hard in the hope that he would get a professional deal. Morgan had been at Spurs for 10 years already and knew that his best friends over that time would largely be staying on.
In March, Tottenham broke the painful news to Morgan that he would not be offered a professional contract. Instead, he would be released at the end of his scholarship.
Within weeks he had a trial at Watford, then a trial at fellow Championship side QPR. He shone for their under-18s and the development squad (effectively the under-21s), and was offered a pro deal, with the development squad initially, only to impress enough to get promoted to Cifuentes’ first-team group.
He made his senior debut in October, became a regular in November, and signed a new long-term deal in mid January. Morgan is arguably the best young player at QPR since Eberechi Eze, who they sold to Crystal Palace in summer 2020 and was in England’s squad as they got to the European Championship final last summer. He is certainly one of the best young players in the Championship.
So it was a steep rise for the teenager, from release by Spurs through to regular Championship football across London within eight months. But what is most striking as The Athletic interviews Morgan at QPR’s training ground this week is that there is absolutely no sense of bitterness or resentment about not going professional at Tottenham. Quite the opposite. He still feels a deep connection with Spurs, with his friends he grew up with who still play there. And he feels gratitude towards the coaches and staff, especially for how they helped him after he was released.
“They said that they were not going to offer me a professional contract there,” Morgan explains, “but then they helped me to find other teams to go to.”
Tottenham staff put together videos of Morgan’s highlights, his best moments both in possession and off the ball. They circulated these clips around clubs who might have use for a talented 18-year-old midfielder with a great attitude and an engine to match. There was plenty of interest from the Championship and third-tier League One, even from abroad. Tottenham helped to arrange trials for Morgan, even putting on transport to take him from his digs in Enfield, near their training ground, to Watford’s equivalent roughly a half-hour drive away every morning, for his first trial away from Spurs.
“It just shows that the people in the building (at Tottenham), how much they care for you,” Morgan says. “The amount of support they gave me, to help find clubs, get trials and sort out transport, it shows how much they care about the players. Even though they knew I was going, I was still one of them until my contract ran out, so they supported me.
Morgan enjoyed that trial spell with Watford but it was his one at QPR that turned into a permanent move.
From the first moment he set foot in their new £20million TSG Training Centre, he felt at home. Morgan remarked that it felt like a ‘mini-Spurs’, given Tottenham’s famously modern and well-equipped Enfield training ground is where he grew up playing. “It felt nice to be in around here,” Morgan says. “Good training ground, good facilities, nice people.”
Soon enough, Morgan was turning out for QPR teams. On March 25, eight days after his 17th birthday, he played for their under-18s against Barnsley’s at the QPR training ground. In the first half. He scored a brilliant free kick, bent around the wall and into the top corner. Then, Morgan played for the QPR development squad, first against their Luton Town counterparts and then against Charlton Athletic’s. His confidence, spark and love of the game were already starting to flow back.
After that Charlton game, QPR made their offer. Now. Morgan and his family had a decision to make. There was also interest from Premier League-bound Ipswich Town, as well as from third-tier Charlton, given how well Morgan had played against them.
QPR spelt out why they thought joining them would be his best move. Their head of emerging talent Dean Barker explained the pathway the club could offer, beginning with the development squad and eventually moving up to the first team. (This appealed to Morgan and his family, but nobody last spring could have imagined he would be starring for Cifuentes’ senior side as fast as he has.)
Morgan met chief executive Christian Nourry too, and heard about his ambitions for the club, who had two brief spells in the Premier League in the previous decade but have been closer to dropping into League One than making a return to the top flight since relegation in 2015. Ultimately, it came down to feel.
“I knew straight away that I wanted to come here,” Morgan says. “I felt at home. It’s somewhere I want to go in every day, I get that family feel. I spoke to loads of staff and players about their ambitions for the club. It fitted in well with what I wanted to try and achieve. When I found out they had offered me (a deal), it was a good feeling. I knew this was the place I’d want to be.”
So Morgan happily signed up, moved into digs in Hounslow, west London, and prepared for life in the QPR development squad. They had a summer tour to Finland in July, and when the season began, he soon started to train with the first team. He started to get into Cifuentes’ matchday squads. And then on October 19, with QPR 2-1 down at home to Portsmouth, Morgan got his debut. It was not exactly an easy entrance into senior football, in the club’s fourth defeat on the spin. Morgan admits to feeling some nerves, and points to a big difference from the development football he was used to.
“It’s a normal game, but playing against older people, with loads of people watching,” he says. “It’s a lot different from what I had usually experienced. It was just about embracing the moment. The physicality is quite a drastic change, how much running you have to do, the strength of some of the players. Also the mindset of some players — they read the game so well, the experience they have. They know where to be, when to be there.”
But it did not take Morgan long to settle. “From my debut, I was a little bit nervous but this is something I always wanted to do, playing football,” he says. “It’s becoming more enjoyable every game I play.”
Before long, Morgan was showing off the skills that always endeared him to the staff at Tottenham, his natural ability with the ball and his commitment. Passing was always integral to his game at Spurs — when he was in the under-11s, the coaches had him watching clips of Xabi Alonso and how he struck the ball. “I’d probably say my passing ability,” Morgan says, when asked about his strengths. “When I get the ball, I’m confident in myself, in how I pass. Out of possession, (it’s) my running, I can get around the pitch. I’ve got quite good stamina. I know I push myself on the pitch, to get around to help my team-mates.”
Cifuentes encourages Morgan to enjoy himself in games, to play with his natural confidence and personality. “Knowing you have a manager who backs you and believes in you getting on the ball,” Morgan says, “it gives yourself a little boost of confidence, to go and get it.”
There are moments when Cifuentes will tell the QPR players that when they are out wide and the ball is on the other side of the pitch, they need to tuck inside to help out. It was the type of instruction Morgan says he would often be urged to follow by his Spurs academy coaches — Stuart Lewis, Jermain Defoe, Paul Bracewell and Bradley Allen. Now that he is starring in senior football, helping to balance QPR’s midfield, he understands how valuable those tactical details were.
Morgan still has great memories of his formative years in the Tottenham academy. He is still great friends with James Rowswell, Tyrese Hall, Leo Black, Oliver Irow, and many other players he grew up with. He has driven up to Stevenage to watch Spurs’ under-21s play some of their home games, and on Thursday evening, after doing this interview, he watched their first team play Elfsborg in the Europa League.
Today, he and QPR travel across the capital to Millwall, a significant game in the Championship battle just beyond the play-off places. Even if this was not the pathway into senior football Morgan expected one year ago, he is making the most of it, and helping to turn QPR’s season around too.
“As a little kid, I always used to say to my parents, ‘I would play football in any league’,” he says. “As an 18-year-old in the Championship, it has come around quite quickly for me.
“I started playing from four or five years old. I put too much effort into it to stop. When I got released, I just (wanted) to keep working hard. I think all the hard work that I’ve put in is hopefully going to pay off.” [Post edited 2 Feb 16:22]
| | | |
| Kieran Morgan article on 18:34 - Feb 2 with 581 views | hertshoops |
| Kieran Morgan article on 16:17 - Feb 2 by Rodney |
Sneaky copy and paste:
“There have been few more transformational comebacks this season than the one currently taking place at Queens Park Rangers.
At the start of this season, the west London club won one of their first 16 league games. They were bottom of the league in late November and at risk of getting cut adrift. But then something switched. Head coach Marti Cifuentes’ team suddenly won eight out of 12. They are now the form team in the second-tier Championship, just six points off the play-off places.
At the heart of this comeback is another story of how quickly fortunes can turn around in football. QPR’s recent run would be unimaginable without the drive of Kieran Morgan in the middle of the pitch.
The 18-year-old midfielder has been a revelation since Cifuentes brought him into the team, providing dynamism, balance and poise; never looking fazed by the challenge QPR faced; adjusting to Championship football as if he had been playing it for years.
The fact that Morgan has been so integral to QPR in recent months is itself a remarkable story. Because 2024 was certainly not easy for him. This time last year, he was a second-year scholar in the Tottenham Hotspur academy, working hard in the hope that he would get a professional deal. Morgan had been at Spurs for 10 years already and knew that his best friends over that time would largely be staying on.
In March, Tottenham broke the painful news to Morgan that he would not be offered a professional contract. Instead, he would be released at the end of his scholarship.
Within weeks he had a trial at Watford, then a trial at fellow Championship side QPR. He shone for their under-18s and the development squad (effectively the under-21s), and was offered a pro deal, with the development squad initially, only to impress enough to get promoted to Cifuentes’ first-team group.
He made his senior debut in October, became a regular in November, and signed a new long-term deal in mid January. Morgan is arguably the best young player at QPR since Eberechi Eze, who they sold to Crystal Palace in summer 2020 and was in England’s squad as they got to the European Championship final last summer. He is certainly one of the best young players in the Championship.
So it was a steep rise for the teenager, from release by Spurs through to regular Championship football across London within eight months. But what is most striking as The Athletic interviews Morgan at QPR’s training ground this week is that there is absolutely no sense of bitterness or resentment about not going professional at Tottenham. Quite the opposite. He still feels a deep connection with Spurs, with his friends he grew up with who still play there. And he feels gratitude towards the coaches and staff, especially for how they helped him after he was released.
“They said that they were not going to offer me a professional contract there,” Morgan explains, “but then they helped me to find other teams to go to.”
Tottenham staff put together videos of Morgan’s highlights, his best moments both in possession and off the ball. They circulated these clips around clubs who might have use for a talented 18-year-old midfielder with a great attitude and an engine to match. There was plenty of interest from the Championship and third-tier League One, even from abroad. Tottenham helped to arrange trials for Morgan, even putting on transport to take him from his digs in Enfield, near their training ground, to Watford’s equivalent roughly a half-hour drive away every morning, for his first trial away from Spurs.
“It just shows that the people in the building (at Tottenham), how much they care for you,” Morgan says. “The amount of support they gave me, to help find clubs, get trials and sort out transport, it shows how much they care about the players. Even though they knew I was going, I was still one of them until my contract ran out, so they supported me.
Morgan enjoyed that trial spell with Watford but it was his one at QPR that turned into a permanent move.
From the first moment he set foot in their new £20million TSG Training Centre, he felt at home. Morgan remarked that it felt like a ‘mini-Spurs’, given Tottenham’s famously modern and well-equipped Enfield training ground is where he grew up playing. “It felt nice to be in around here,” Morgan says. “Good training ground, good facilities, nice people.”
Soon enough, Morgan was turning out for QPR teams. On March 25, eight days after his 17th birthday, he played for their under-18s against Barnsley’s at the QPR training ground. In the first half. He scored a brilliant free kick, bent around the wall and into the top corner. Then, Morgan played for the QPR development squad, first against their Luton Town counterparts and then against Charlton Athletic’s. His confidence, spark and love of the game were already starting to flow back.
After that Charlton game, QPR made their offer. Now. Morgan and his family had a decision to make. There was also interest from Premier League-bound Ipswich Town, as well as from third-tier Charlton, given how well Morgan had played against them.
QPR spelt out why they thought joining them would be his best move. Their head of emerging talent Dean Barker explained the pathway the club could offer, beginning with the development squad and eventually moving up to the first team. (This appealed to Morgan and his family, but nobody last spring could have imagined he would be starring for Cifuentes’ senior side as fast as he has.)
Morgan met chief executive Christian Nourry too, and heard about his ambitions for the club, who had two brief spells in the Premier League in the previous decade but have been closer to dropping into League One than making a return to the top flight since relegation in 2015. Ultimately, it came down to feel.
“I knew straight away that I wanted to come here,” Morgan says. “I felt at home. It’s somewhere I want to go in every day, I get that family feel. I spoke to loads of staff and players about their ambitions for the club. It fitted in well with what I wanted to try and achieve. When I found out they had offered me (a deal), it was a good feeling. I knew this was the place I’d want to be.”
So Morgan happily signed up, moved into digs in Hounslow, west London, and prepared for life in the QPR development squad. They had a summer tour to Finland in July, and when the season began, he soon started to train with the first team. He started to get into Cifuentes’ matchday squads. And then on October 19, with QPR 2-1 down at home to Portsmouth, Morgan got his debut. It was not exactly an easy entrance into senior football, in the club’s fourth defeat on the spin. Morgan admits to feeling some nerves, and points to a big difference from the development football he was used to.
“It’s a normal game, but playing against older people, with loads of people watching,” he says. “It’s a lot different from what I had usually experienced. It was just about embracing the moment. The physicality is quite a drastic change, how much running you have to do, the strength of some of the players. Also the mindset of some players — they read the game so well, the experience they have. They know where to be, when to be there.”
But it did not take Morgan long to settle. “From my debut, I was a little bit nervous but this is something I always wanted to do, playing football,” he says. “It’s becoming more enjoyable every game I play.”
Before long, Morgan was showing off the skills that always endeared him to the staff at Tottenham, his natural ability with the ball and his commitment. Passing was always integral to his game at Spurs — when he was in the under-11s, the coaches had him watching clips of Xabi Alonso and how he struck the ball. “I’d probably say my passing ability,” Morgan says, when asked about his strengths. “When I get the ball, I’m confident in myself, in how I pass. Out of possession, (it’s) my running, I can get around the pitch. I’ve got quite good stamina. I know I push myself on the pitch, to get around to help my team-mates.”
Cifuentes encourages Morgan to enjoy himself in games, to play with his natural confidence and personality. “Knowing you have a manager who backs you and believes in you getting on the ball,” Morgan says, “it gives yourself a little boost of confidence, to go and get it.”
There are moments when Cifuentes will tell the QPR players that when they are out wide and the ball is on the other side of the pitch, they need to tuck inside to help out. It was the type of instruction Morgan says he would often be urged to follow by his Spurs academy coaches — Stuart Lewis, Jermain Defoe, Paul Bracewell and Bradley Allen. Now that he is starring in senior football, helping to balance QPR’s midfield, he understands how valuable those tactical details were.
Morgan still has great memories of his formative years in the Tottenham academy. He is still great friends with James Rowswell, Tyrese Hall, Leo Black, Oliver Irow, and many other players he grew up with. He has driven up to Stevenage to watch Spurs’ under-21s play some of their home games, and on Thursday evening, after doing this interview, he watched their first team play Elfsborg in the Europa League.
Today, he and QPR travel across the capital to Millwall, a significant game in the Championship battle just beyond the play-off places. Even if this was not the pathway into senior football Morgan expected one year ago, he is making the most of it, and helping to turn QPR’s season around too.
“As a little kid, I always used to say to my parents, ‘I would play football in any league’,” he says. “As an 18-year-old in the Championship, it has come around quite quickly for me.
“I started playing from four or five years old. I put too much effort into it to stop. When I got released, I just (wanted) to keep working hard. I think all the hard work that I’ve put in is hopefully going to pay off.” [Post edited 2 Feb 16:22]
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Good refreshing read - thanks Rodney |  | | |
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| Kieran Morgan article on 20:40 - Feb 2 with 374 views | CateLeBonR |
Young player of the year vote is going to be very very interesting this season! |  | | |
| Kieran Morgan article on 21:15 - Feb 2 with 252 views | Lblock |
I think he’s already a £10mill player |  |
| Cherish and enjoy life.... this ain't no dress rehearsal |
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