West Ham manager Sam Allardyce fears Ravel Morrison's head has been turned by Fulham's interest "It's like everything," he said. This window creates a hysteria. People will tell you that somebody is going to come and get you. That could then turn your head, probably based on the money that people say you're going to make. Could he be sold? "Well, who knows?" he said. It's difficult for a manager to give advice to a young player when it comes to that, because they see you probably working for the club, as the manager, rather than working for them. You can offer the advice but they're going to listen more to the advice of the agents, than they are to the manager, in most cases. That's certainly the case when it comes to Lacina Traore. It wasn't Monaco and it wasn't us, it was all down to the player's agent. That is who he listened to. That is what happens in today's modern-day game. And so Allardyce extended the warm hand of conciliation to Morrison, in his own inimitably perverse way. "He's a young man, and a young man with not much experience," he said. You have to give a bit of leeway for that scenario. He's not an experienced man in life, never mind in football. And inexperienced young players can react in many different ways. Some players will react in a different way, do whatever they feel is best for them. Sometimes it's the wrong thing to do, but that's the way they go about it. Recently, from Ravel's point of view, there was a slight move away from the form he showed in the early stages. Then we found out that perhaps it was down to his groin rather than a dip in form. That is the problem with a young talented player: consistency. When he doesn't become consistent then you have to take him out of the team and let him regroup and then come back in again. If you don't play well, it doesn't matter whether you're Ravel Morrison, Kevin Nolan, Andy Carroll, whoever it might be, you're putting your position in jeopardy. Some olive branch. And yet Allardyce deserves a certain credit for telling Morrison, with characteristic frankness, to put his phone away for the evening and get back to playing some football. "I would think that at every club there is a player unsettled because of mad January," he said. The lunatic transfer window creates havoc throughout the game. You lose a bit of sleep, and you don't sleep quite as well as you would like to. You pass the day not knowing how quick the time has gone. You get up in the morning, you come in, and you think it's lunchtime, and it's about four o'clock, and you've missed it. And I wondered why I was feeling so hungry. He may look increasingly vexed these days, but Allardyce has never lost his hunger for the task in hand. It remains to be seen whether Morrison still has his.