Leeds have finally offloaded one of the highest earners on the books as we have finally made a deal for Millwall to take him off our hands.
One of the priorities during the close season has been to get a few of the highest earners off the books, and Morison was certainly one of those, with a contract believed to be around £17,000 a week. Although he scored a rare goal in the infamous pre-season game against Eintracht Frankfurt, he was surplus to requirements one the club had completed the signing of a few younger strikers in the shape of Wood and Erwin.
As 31-year-old had 12 months of his contract remaining Leeds needed to reach an agreement with him, as Millwall wouldn’t be able to match his current wages. And though the official site has stated that Millwall have paid an "undisclosed fee”, the Yorkshire Post are claiming that this money is all going to the player to pay off his contract.
Morison joined Leeds from Norwich in 2013 in an exchange deal involving Luciano Becchio, with Leeds also receiving £200,000. And according to my mate in Norwich, the Canaries only signed Becchio in order to get Morison off their hands.
At the time Morison was still working his way back to fitness, and it clearly showed during the remainder of the 2012/3 season. His finest game in a Leeds shirt was away to Palace, when he scored two cracking goals in a 2-2 draw. But the only other occasion he found the net in that first season came against Blackpool, when he was presented with an unmissable chance by an error from our former carthorse Steve Crainey.
He has since enjoyed two loan spells at Millwall, and obviously enjoyed playing for them far more than he ever did for us, scoring 48 goals in a total of 120 starts for the South-East London mob. His last chance to re-establish himself at Leeds came when he returned for the second half of last season, but while his workrate earned him a bit of a cult following, the goals remained elusive.
In total he has only score scored five times for Leeds in 41 competitive appearances, so it’s time for him to try his luck in a lower division and returns to South-East London for his first spell as a permanent Millwall signing. And he’s likely to be straight into their first team, with fellow striker Aiden O’Brien out with ruptured ankle ligaments.
We’ll appreciate Morison’s hard work at Leeds and wish him well at one of our favourite other clubs, but at toellanback towers we’re rather glad to see him make way for a few younger talents who might actually find the back of the net.