Diamanti Models Himself On Dicksy!

He arrived looking like a ponce and, to be honest, he was playing a bit like one. With floppy blonde hair, he resembled a primadonna fashion model on a catwalk, not a footballer ready for the blood and thunder of the Premiership. A dead ball specialist but when it came to physical contact, well was the boy up to the job?

Then what happened? Ever read "The Strange Case of Jekyll & Hyde"? Well, the chapter on 2009/10 in the "History of West Ham United" may be entitled "The Strange Case of Diamanti and Dicksy"! As he waited to come on, I had a flash back. What was Julian Dicks doing waiting to be brought on, shouldn't he be fighting his way through the smog and grime of Greys?

And with the new hard man look came a new attitude. Didn't you just love Diamanti's hunger to be involved and the passion he showed when celebrating his goal? He was being called a cross between Di Canio and Zola when he arrived, well what I saw looked closer to a mongrel combination of Dicks and Gascoigne. You could see the madness in his eyes, the passion in his play, and the skill in some of his passing. That dinked ball to Hines was delicious and his sweeping pass out to the left was sheer class. Best of all, like Dicksy, he was ready to let fly at any and every opportunity. We spent 55 minutes frightened to shoot, then Diamanti arrived and suddenly the Arsenal keeper realised he was in a game.

It may, of course, be a flash in the pan but what I saw looked very exciting indeed. Diamanti may be the rough diamond we have all been dreaming of and if he emerges as a cross between Gascoigne and Dicks, he will be one hell of a player! And a mad bastard into the bargain!