Alex Morris (born 5 October 1983) is an English professional football manager, and is head coach of Stoke City U21s.

Career

Playing career

Morris joined

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

's youth system aged 12 as a midfielder in 1995 and was a contemporary of players including

Dean Ashton Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

, David Vaughan and

Lee Bell Lee Bell (born 26 January 1983) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is currently manager of Crewe Alexandra. He began his career at Crewe Alexandra, also playing for Burton Albion, Mansfield Town and Mac ...

. He was a member of Crewe's reserve side which won the

Cheshire Senior Cup The Cheshire County Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the Cheshire Senior Cup, is a football knockout tournament founded in the 1879–80 season and involves teams from Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, England. It ...

in 2003. Despite injury difficulties including a stress fracture of his shin, Morris was, alongside fellow

Academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

graduate Chris McCready, offered a one-year contract by manager

Dario Gradi Dario Gradi, MBE (born 8 July 1941) is an Italian-English former amateur football player, coach and manager. He was associated for more than 36 years with Crewe Alexandra, where he was variously manager, director of football and director of the ...

in 2004. He remained part of Gradi's first team squad until 2006, but injuries prevented him from making a first-team appearance for the club and forced his early retirement as a player.

Coaching and managerial career

Morris then focussed on earning coaching qualifications, working in Crewe's Academy set-up. He was manager of Crewe's under-18 side that reached the quarter-final of the 2015

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

, beating

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

and

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

en route to defeat by eventual finalists

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

. After club manager

Steve Davis Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a Sports commentator, commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he rea ...

was sacked in January 2017, the new incoming manager

David Artell David John Artell (born 22 November 1980) is a professional football manager and former player who most recently was manager of club Crewe Alexandra. He began his career as a centre back with Rotherham United, as the "Millers" won successive p ...

made Morris part of his senior management team alongside assistant

Kenny Lunt Kenneth Vincent Lunt (born 20 November 1979) is an English retired professional footballer and current football coach, who works for Crewe Alexandra as player development manager. Lunt previous played for Crewe, Sheffield Wednesday, Hereford Uni ...

. Morris managed the Crewe reserve side which won the Cheshire Senior Cup in May 2017. Some five years later, as Crewe struggled to avoid relegation from

EFL League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

, Artell reshuffled his management team, appointing Morris as assistant manager, with Lunt becoming player development manager. After the club was relegated with four games still to play, Crewe parted company with Artell on 11 April 2022, and Morris was appointed interim manager to the end of the 2021–22 season, with

as his assistant. Morris said he wanted Crewe to make the most of a "mini two-week season" comprising their final four League One fixtures, while also declaring his interest in becoming the next Crewe manager: "I'd love to take the job long-term. I've been at this club for a long, long time and I believe I have the credentials." Crewe won their first game under Morris, a 3–1 home victory over

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

on 15 April 2022. Morris was appointed the permanent manager on 28 April 2022. With the Alex winless in nine games, on 4 November 2022, Morris stepped down as Crewe Alexandra manager "for compassionate reasons" and reverted to assistant manager with Bell becoming interim and eventually permanent manager. In June 2023, Crewe announced Morris's departure to take up a role at Championship club

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

as U21 head coach.

Managerial statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Alex 1983 births English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders English football managers Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Crewe Alexandra F.C. managers Crewe Alexandra F.C. non-playing staff English Football League managers Living people Footballers from Crewe Stoke City F.C. non-playing staff