Extraordinary new details can be revealed today to show Sheffield United were warned by one of Maddy Cusack’s team-mates in the club’s women’s side about its manager Jonathan Morgan’s alleged “bully-like behaviours” just a few months before she took her own life.
Evidence seen by The Athletic reveals that a player lodged a formal complaint about her own experiences which included a warning that “his (Morgan’s) clear disregard for player welfare could be dangerous to the mental health of other (women’s team) players”.
Her complaint was lodged towards the end of the 2022-23 season and, after Cusack took her own life on September 20, 2023, United offered the player a financial settlement but included a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) preventing her from speaking to the media or publicly revealing details of the matters she had raised, including Morgan’s alleged behaviour.
Morgan was cleared in December by a club-commissioned inquiry, investigating an official complaint from Cusack’s family about his behaviour towards Maddy, and allowed to continue in the job until February, when he was sacked over The Athletic’s revelations that he had a secret three-year relationship with a teenage player while previously managing Leicester City’s women’s team.
He has always denied causing Cusack’s emotional anguish and says they had an ordinary player-manager relationship in which he tried to take a positive role in her life. Morgan says he has been the victim of a “witch hunt” since her parents, David and Deborah, lodged an official complaint with, first, the club and then the Football Association.
The latest revelations raise serious questions, however, about what United’s directors and HR department did in response to the complaint from Cusack’s team-mate and the manner in which they have, until now, kept it out of the public domain.
The player, a friend of Cusack’s, alleged in an email to the club that Morgan’s behaviour had affected a number of her team-mates and that she herself had been made a subject of “disregard and isolation” by the manager.
“Regardless of the impact Jonathan Morgan’s actions have had on myself, I am concerned there is a risk to others, particularly younger players who may not speak up or who may fall victim to these ‘bully-like’ behaviours,” she wrote. “I know for a fact that I am not the first to be subjected to poor treatment from Jonathan and I feel strongly that I will not be the last on the receiving end of such unethical management if it is not addressed.
“Not only has he acted unprofessionally on multiple grounds but his clear disregard for player welfare could be dangerous to the mental health of other players.
“Therefore, I would like him to be made aware (as a minimum) of the importance of player welfare, the importance of mental health and that there are standards that should be upheld, particularly when releasing players, until both parties go their separate ways. I’d like appropriate action to be taken based on any further findings and a formal record of his conduct to be logged.”
Her complaint, which involved enlisting legal help, raises new questions about why the initial inquiry cleared Morgan of bullying or inappropriate behaviour towards any player. The club have never allowed details of that inquiry to be seen, not even by Cusack’s family.
The inquiry was undertaken by Dennis Shotton, a retired chief superintendent from Northumbria police, on behalf of Safecall, a Sunderland-based company specialising in whistleblowing disputes.
Shotton’s work, however, was riddled with basic errors. He misspelt Maddy’s first and second names, introducing her as “Madeline Cussack,” as well as getting the names of others involved mixed up and referring, twice, to David as a club employee rather than as her father.
The family have rejected Shotton’s findings and the FA is 10 months into a second inquiry that is also speaking to witnesses from Leicester and Burnley, another of Morgan’s previous clubs. More than 40 people have been interviewed.
In a statement to The Athletic, United appeared to indicate the information relating to the “bully-like” complaint was made available to Shotton and had also been passed to the FA’s investigators.
“Settlements that Sheffield United enter with its employees are of a private and confidential matter, to protect both the employer and employee,” the statement reads. “This does not, however, prevent either party disclosing or actively taking part in any regulatory or statutory body investigations and, in this instance, we have shared all relevant information.”
Responding to questions about the gagging clause, the club’s explanation was that “an NDA is a standard clause within any settlement agreement”.
That, however, ignores the fact that the practice of having departing employees sign NDAs is controversial. It is a choice whether to impose such a stipulation and, though it remains common in football, many companies consider them unethical and bad practice.
Cusack, a former England Under-19 international, was United’s vice-captain and longest-serving player, as well as working for the club as a commercial executive. She had previously played for Leicester, Birmingham City and Aston Villa, having been part of the youth setups at Nottingham Forest and Chesterfield.
Her parents have told investigators they had numerous conversations with their daughter in which she told them she felt isolated and unhappy because of Morgan’s behaviour.
In a seven-page complaint to the club written by her father, a solicitor, they expressed their belief it was the root cause of why a previously happy 27-year-old decided to end her life. Maddy, they believe, “would still be with us had he (Morgan) not been appointed”.
Morgan vehemently denies this being the case and has always said he is confident of being cleared by the FA inquiry. He has, however, not commented in relation to the complaint from the second United player. The Athletic has previously been told he blamed it on the player being out of the team.
In a letter to the family last December, United’s chief executive, Stephen Bettis, stated that none of the people interviewed for the Safecall inquiry had “heard or witnessed any bullying or inappropriate behaviour” from Morgan, towards Cusack or any player.
Bettis did, however, acknowledge in his letter that Morgan’s behaviour “divided opinion” among the people interviewed. Some found him supportive and caring. Others described his style of management as “isolating some players, quite authoritative and intimidating”. That, according to Cusack’s family, was her experience of Morgan, both in Sheffield and previously at Leicester.
As well as losing his job, Morgan was dropped by his agent, Jo Tongue, a director of the Women In Football group, after the story came to light about his relationship, when in his late-20s, with a player at Leicester who said she was 17 years old when they started seeing each other. The player’s mother described it as “inappropriate and immoral” and the player said Morgan had taken advantage of her immaturity.
Morgan, now 36, was the subject of two unrelated complaints at Leicester, the first of which was about his managerial conduct and ended with a first-team player receiving a financial settlement from the club (then independent of the men’s team and owned by Morgan’s father, Rohan) in February 2019, in relation to her contract. She, too, is understood to have a non-disclosure clause preventing her from going public about the details.
The second investigation, in May 2021, was instigated after an anonymous letter of complaint was sent to Leicester’s board members, as well as the FA, citing a wide-ranging number of alleged dressing-room issues. Players were asked about claims that Morgan publicly discussed his sexual exploits and had used a derogatory term to describe a member of his team. The investigation cleared Morgan, who called the allegations wholly untrue and denied any wrongdoing in both cases.
He was not sanctioned on either occasion and went on to get the Sheffield United job in February 2023 despite one of the Yorkshire club’s senior executives warning her colleagues during the selection process that he “doesn’t have a great reputation” within women’s football.
As The Athletic revealed earlier this year, Zoe Johnson, then United’s head of women’s football, said Morgan was a good coach but raised concerns that he was not the right “fit” in an email to Carl Shieber, the club’s head of football administration.
Johnson left United shortly afterwards, to take a role at Brighton & Hove Albion. She was not involved, therefore, when her former club eventually appointed Morgan and, within a few months, an official complaint had been lodged against him.
Safecall has declined to comment and Morgan has not responded to The Athletic’s approaches. A Sheffield United spokesman said: “We will continue to respectfully await the outcome of the Football Association’s investigation.”
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Meech Robinson)
