The thing that stands out above everything else, at the end of our trading, is the way the Nani signings have become persona non gratis at West Ham, as if they are carriers of the bubonic plague. Remember what Ilan was reported as saying last season?
""I don't want to say bad things about Zola because he is a good person, but you know sometimes a good person working in football doesn't work. If you give your players a lot of freedom, they will not obey you anymore. That is what is happening now at West Ham, especially with players who speak Italian. Zola has lost control of the team and it is impossible for him to recover it."
At the time, I speculated on who these Italian speakers might be and it came down to Diamanti (sold), Daprela (given away), Behrami (in cold storage until January) and maybe Da Costa (unselected thus far by Grant). All four were signed by Nani.
It is almost as if, like Stalinists, the club are trying to wipe Nani from the recorded history of the club. Look at the players used so far this season, and Ilunga apart, they are all Pardew, Grant and Curbishley men. The Man Utd team read:
Pardew, Pardew, Curbishley, Pardew, Nani; Curbishley, Youth Team, Curbishley, Curbishley, Curbishley; Pardew. Subs: Grant, Grant, Youth Team.
Considering Nani and Zola were in charge for the best part of 2 years, their imprint on the present team is amazingly negligible. And Ilunga, of course, pre dated Zola, so the little Italian has been consigned to history completely.
I have openly speculated on the reasons behind the sale of Diamanti and Daprela but perhaps it comes down to their negative effect on the team's morale - and the same may well be true of Behrami. It's odd that his wife became unhappy in London only after Zola's departure; until then, Behrami seemed happy enough at the club.
Maybe, just maybe, there was an Italian speaking clique in the club that had to be cleared out before we could move on. If so, the sacrifices may be worth while!
7 comments:
Dont get it????
don't be complaining if you wake up with a horse's head in your bed in the morning although if they do it properly it could be Terry Brown's head and that would be no great shame
Don't get what 1028?
Curbs and Egghead splashed all the cash(derrrrrr) and then the GFC, plus westham were all ready basically in their own GFC pre dating the world's!
You should get a job with the engineers at my work, that we all want to slap!
GFC being Global Financial Crisis presumably? That Global Financial Crisis saw us paying £9million-ish for Savio, £6million-ish for Diamanti, £2millionish for Kovac and £2million-ish for Ilunga . That's £19million-ish, not allowing for agents fees and loan signing fees for Tristan, Di Michelle and Jimenez. Then there was £3million-ish for Benni of course and undisclosed fees for Daprela and Da Costa. And all this in a Global Financial Crisis!
HF, you don't seriously believe we paid 9 million for Savio, do you?
Oh, and please don't ask anon 1028 whot shot JFK...
I've absolutely no idea what we paid for Savio but £9million was the reported figure!
Post a Comment