West Ham wonderkid compared with Ryan Giggs and Gareth Bale 'should have been best in the world'

Former West Ham United star James Collins can't believe one of his former teammates didn't become the 'best player in the world'.

Collins made 279 appearances in the Premier League over his two spells at West Ham as well as his stint at Aston Villa.

He played against some of the best players the league has ever seen, including the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kevin De Bruyne, among others.

But he's bemoaned one of his former West Ham teammates not fulfilling his potential, comparing him to Ryan Giggs and Gareth Bale.

Collins has revealed that Ravel Morrison was the 'best player' he's ever seen and described him as an 'absolute joke' of a player.

"Ravel Morrison was the best player I’ve ever seen," he said to West Ham Fan TV.

"The boy was an absolute joke. I’m gutted you all didn’t get to see him more than you did, because that boy should have been the best player in the world.

"He was ridiculous. What I’d seen, Ryan Giggs, Gareth Bale, he would have been on a level with them boys."

Morrison graduated from Manchester United's famed youth academy but failed to get going at Old Trafford.

He moved to West Ham and seemed to get his career back on track under the tutelage of Sam Allardyce.

In a game against Tottenham, Morrison scored a sensational solo goal in his side's 3-0 away win back in 2013.

But it wasn't the launch pad people had thought as the midfielder tapered off, with the club loaning him out to Birmingham City, Queens Park Rangers and Cardiff City before joining Lazio following his West Ham release.

Collins added: "Remember that goal he scored against Tottenham. That was just before Christmas. The club had had a bit of trouble with him, he had not been turning up for training. So he scored that goal and won the game.

"Me, Kevin Nolan, Mark Noble had him at the back of the bus and gone: 'right Rav, this is you now. Everyone is speaking about you, seeing what you are doing. Keep it going’. We trained on Christmas Day to play Arsenal on Boxing Day.

"We were in training, sitting on the bus at Upton Park, he just didn’t turn up and he had just scored that goal against Tottenham, whenever it was and everyone was talking about it. So we thought we had him and he was in and his head was straight and then he just f**ked off."

Morrison played for a slew of others team after leaving Italy. He returned to England with QPR before signing for Mexican outfit Atlas then Swedish side Ostersund.

He came back to the Premier League as Sheffield United snapped him up, but only made one league appearance. He then had spells at Middlesbrough, ADO Den Haag, Derby County before moving to Stateside.

The 30-year-old joined Wayne Rooney's then-DC United as he still remains on their books.

SPORTbible are on WhatsApp! We've launched a dedicated news channel to send you the latest news, features and plenty more directly on WhatsApp and all you need to do to sign up is click through to our one-way broadcast channel here for 'SPORTbible News' to appear in the 'Updates' tab on your WhatsApp.