WILLIE MORGAN 

Date and Place of Birth 2nd October 1944 - Sauchie, Alloa   Transfers to and from Burnley amateur then pro - October 1962 to Manchester United - August 1968 (£110,000) from Manchester United - June 1975 (£32,000) to Bolton Wanderers - March 1976   First and Last Burnley Games Sheffield Wednesday (a) - 23rd April 1963   Blackpool (a) - 3rd January 1976 replaced by David Loggie   Other Clubs ---------------------------------------- Manchester United, Bolton Wanderers, Chicago Sting (loan), Minnesota Kicks (loan), Vancouver Whitecaps (loan), Blackpool

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

We've had some great players at Burnley and for me Willie Morgan was one of the best, a right winger who played a major part in the successful side of the mid-60s before a move to Manchester United.

He had two spells with the club and managed to fall out with chairman Bob Lord during both of them, no mean achievement, and went on to play league football until the age of 37 before finally hanging up his boots.

He joined Burnley from his native Scotland in 1960 as we were crowned league champions. He was quickly impressing all who saw him play but such was the talent around Turf Moor at the time that he couldn't always win a regular place in the reserve team. John Connelly was the regular outside right at the time in the first team whilst there was plenty of cover, notably from Trevor Meredith.

He did finally win himself a regular place in the Central League side for the 1962/63 season having signed a professional contract and by the end of that season had made his first team debut at the age of 18.

That debut came at Sheffield Wednesday and by the following season had earned himself a regular place with Connelly being forced out onto the left wing. On Boxing Day 1963 he scored his first goals for the club, two in a 6-1 win against Manchester United, although he was never a prolific scorer.

Morgan established himself as one of the best wingers in the league. He had great close control, could beat defenders almost at will and was a superb crosser of the ball. Willie Irvine once joked that he and Andy Lochhead made those crosses look good but seriously Irvine said that, alongside Finney, he was the best winger he ever played with or against.

Such was his form that he was called up for Scotland, only the third Burnley player to be capped by the Scots following Jock Aird and Adam Blacklaw.

For a time he was the big crowd idol at Turf Moor but as was the case with so many players his time at the club was all too short. Connelly had gone to Manchester United in 1965 and by the summer of 1968 it was inevitable that Morgan too would be leaving.

Dave Thomas was waiting in the wings and for a time a move to Leeds looked odds on. It would probably have happened but for a dispute between chairman Lord and Leeds at the time.

This led to a problem between player and chairman and there was only ever one winner at Burnley in that circumstance. Morgan was going but certainly not to Leeds. He was eventually sold to Manchester United for £117,000 and joined the team who had just been crowned European Champions.

Lord used to boast that players never bettered themselves when they left Burnley so I suppose we all just waited for the brilliant Willie Morgan to fall flat on his face and fail. If we did then we had a long wait because he became as big a favourite at Old Trafford as he'd ever been at Burnley.

His debut for United came on the right wing - the forward line that day was Willie Morgan, Brian Kidd, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton and George Best. A fantastic line up but remember a couple of years earlier he'd been in this forward line - Willie Morgan, Andy Lochhead, Willie Irvine, Gordon Harris and Ralph Coates, equally as good.

He signed for United at a time when they were about to go into a decline although Morgan blossomed despite the lack of honours. He was relegated with United in 1974 but was in the side that bounced straight back and even scored against Burnley that season in a League Cup tie. United, a second division club, beat first division Burnley.

That promotion was the first honour at club level for him but he was involved in the highly publicised court case against manager Tommy Docherty and left United to return to Turf Moor.

He said once that Lord had wanted to bury the hatchet but on signing realised he wanted to bury it in his head. Whatever did or didn't happen his time at Burnley second time round was short lived.

When Jimmy Adamson was sacked as manager in January 1976, just a few months after Morgan returned, he became one of the players left out in the cold and he was very promptly removed via a free transfer to Bolton. Adamson's last game in charge proved to be Morgan's last appearance for Burnley.

Many thought that would be the end for him but he went on to have a superb four years with Bolton during which time they won promotion to the first division under manager Ian Greaves. He played for Bolton during the season and in the close season continued to play his football in North America with Chicago Sting, Minnesota Kicks and Vancouver Whitecaps.

Released by Bolton in 1980 he had two more season of league football with Blackpool before calling it a day.

His career had seen him player over 630 league games for his four English clubs as well as picking up 21 caps for Scotland and playing in the World Cup Finals of 1974 in West Germany.

Alongside Trevor Steven I would say that Willie Morgan was the best youngster I ever saw come through the youth system at Burnley. He stood out from the first time I saw him play reserve team football.

His initial promise was not just that and he became a top, top player throughout his career. I only wish he'd been able to stay with the Clarets a few years longer before moving on, but that was so often the case.