Trevor Morley

Non-league

Morley is the son of a former Nottingham Forest player and was rejected as a teenager by Derby County. Forced to move into non-league football with Corby Town and Nuneaton Borough with whom he won the Southern League title in 1982.

Northampton Town

In the summer of 1985 Morley moved to Northampton Town for £20,000 making his debut of Burnley on 17 August 1985. His move to Northampton arose after manager Graham Carr moved from Nuneaton to Northampton, and took Morley and Eddie McGoldrick with him. Morley captained Northampton, as they won the 1986–87 Fourth Division championship by a nine-point margin.

Manchester City

After scoring 39 league goals in 139 appearances for Northampton, Morley was signed by manager Mel Machin for Manchester City in January 1988 as part of an exchange deal that saw Tony Adcock move to the County Ground. The deal valued Morley at £235,000. He made his debut for City 23 January 1988 in a 2–0 home defeat by Aston Villa. He scored 18 league goals for Manchester City, including the equaliser at Bradford City on the last day of the 1988–89 season that meant Manchester City won promotion, a point ahead of Crystal Palace. On 23 September 1989, he put City 2–0 ahead in the famous 5–1 derby win over Manchester United in the First Division. When manager Machin was sacked by Manchester City chairman Peter Swales, his replacement Howard Kendall saw no place in his side for Morley.

West Ham United

Signed by…

Morley was stabbed by his wife in 1991, he later speculated that she was behind false accusations of him being in a homosexual relationship with friend and teammate Ian Bishop. Morley stated "The rumours about me being gay killed me for a while. I've got nothing against gays – I now have friends who are gay – but it's not nice to be called a homosexual when you aren't one. How many times does Robbie Williams have to come out and tell the world he isn't gay? The more you say it, the more people start to believe it's true... It ruined my football for a while. I'd go out onto the field and hide. I didn't want to be there... Hearing gay comments from some West Ham fans was hard to take." He later had a spell scouting for Arsenal in Norway and, in 2000, took on the manager's role at SK Bergen Sparta of the Norwegian Fifth Division. He currently lives in Norway, where he runs a not for-profit shelter for addicts and works as a football pundit for TV 2.

Individual

PFA Team of the Year: 1986–87 Fourth Division, 1990–91 Second Division