Chris Morgan

Barnsley

Morgan attended Penistone Grammar School and played Sunday league football for Hoyland Common Falcons. He began his career at Barnsley, and made his first-team debut under Danny Wilson in a 6–0 defeat to West Ham United in a Premier League tie at Upton Park on 10 January 1998. He was one of three "Tykes" players sent off in a 3–2 defeat to Liverpool at Oakwell on 28 March after his arm appeared to make contact with Michael Owen's head. He ended the 1997–98 season with 11 Premier League and three FA Cup appearances to his name as Barnsley were relegated in 19th-place. He played 19 First Division games under John Hendrie's stewardship in the 1998–99 campaign, and was in a 3–1 home defeat to Norwich City on 8 September. He established himself as a key first-team player under Dave Bassett and was named as the club's Player of the Year in the 1999–2000 season, playing a total of 45 games, including three appearances in the play-offs as Barnsley reached the play-off final at Wembley, where they lost 4–2 to Ipswich Town. He also scored his first goal in professional football in a 3–2 League Cup victory over Bradford City at Valley Parade on 12 October. He made 45 appearances in the 2000–01 season. He scored the only goal of the game against Burnley in caretaker manager Eric Winstanley's first game in charge on Boxing day. He was also sent off twice, firstly for a bad foul on Birmingham City's David Holdsworth in a 4–1 defeat at St Andrew's on 28 August and secondly…

Morgan was described by The Yorkshire Post as a "granite-hard, uncompromising defender". In November 2008, he severely injured Barnsley striker and Canadian international Iain Hume with an elbow to the head. Hume sustained a fractured skull and internal bleeding. He was sent off six times each for Barnsley and Sheffield United, holding the club record for red cards at both clubs.

Morgan became Sheffield United's reserve team coach shortly after sustaining a serious knee injury in October 2010. During the 2011–12 season, while still a registered player but unable to play due to injury, he led United's reserves to the Central League title. In April 2013, Morgan was appointed as caretaker-manager for the remainder of the 2012–13 season after the departure of manager Danny Wilson. Despite United winning Morgan's first game in charge, results did not significantly improve and they failed to clinch promotion, losing to Yeovil Town in the semi-final of the League One play-offs. Despite publicly expressing his desire to take on the role on a permanent basis, Morgan was overlooked for the post of full-time manager in favour of former Scotland defender David Weir. Weir's brief reign was ended on 11 October, at which point Morgan resumed his role as caretaker manager. He worked as first-team coach under new boss Nigel Clough, before going on to coach the under-21 side after Nigel Adkins took charge in the summer of 2015. On 30 December 2015, Sheffield United announced that they had "reluctantly" released Morgan, and that he would be joining Chesterfield as first-team coach under manager Danny Wilson. Wilson and Morgan were sacked in January 2017. He joined the coaching staff at Port Vale two months later, where former teammate Michael Brown was caretaker manager. On 16 September, Brown was sacked following seven games without a win, and Morgan and David Kelly…

Morgan was appointed inaugural Chairman of the Sheffield United Former Players' Association in November 2015. In February 2018, Morgan joined a high-profile agency Stellar Group to work as a football intermediary.