Oh yes? So West Ham didn't allow him to play regularly then? Grant was leaving him out of the team was he? Well no, not quite!
Valedictory goes on: "My family and I are happy again at last. After the World Cup I returned to West Ham, but it wasn't easy to overcome the disappointment of that. I slowly managed and started to play again, but I no longer felt at ease in London.Then, finally, I had the opportunity to come back to Serie A. I wanted a return to Italy with all my strength."
In others words, just as I kept suggesting, Behrami wasn't injured as such, he was sulking and refusing to play! Poor diddums, his wife was unhappy in London, and he was disappointed after playing terribly in the World Cup and getting himself sent off so...so he "no longer felt at ease" and couldn't play "with all (his) strength"! And then, he moves clubs and suddenly he is fit again.
So whilst we had eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve payers ruled out with GENUINE injuries, it sounds as if Behrami was pulling a sickie because he wanted to leave, putting a gun to the head of the club by refusing to play.
How foolish do all those who backed Behrami, when I criticised him, feel now? Mr Huff and Puff took you all for mugs! And whilst you were defending him, even excusing that foul that saw him dismissed in the World Cup, he was pocketing £45,000 a week and "not feeling at ease"! What a total cnut!
"it sounds as if" oh well then it must be true.... geez if I wanted this kind of thing I'd read the Daily Mail.
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to remind me..... what did Reo Coker do that was so bad? and perhaps you'd also be so kind as to explain to me what it was that made Lampard a rogue?
ReplyDeleteI don't think Lampard did anything wrong at all. I think he was fully justified in wanting to leave after his Dad & uncle were sacked; but he is hated by a very sizeable proportion of the West Ham fan base is he not?
ReplyDeleteReo-Choker talked about leaving immediately after our game at Old Trafford. Instead of celebrating the moment, he was looking to jump ship. It was much the same as Defoe's transfer request the day after we were relegated. In fact, Defoe at least had the "decency" to wait 24 hours!!!
I don't like Reo-Coker but many fans had it in for him even when he was putting in Parkeresque performances. This was before he wanted to leave
ReplyDeleteThey had it in for Lampard too, insisting his selection was down to nepotism - which seems incredible given his fantastic record prior to and subsequent to his leaving the club.
ReplyDelete"I don't think Lampard did anything wrong at all" is a bit much.
ReplyDeleteIt started from his first interviews after joining Chelsea. Complaining about the lack of professionalism at the club, lack lustre training, burgers at the training ground, etc - even though this would have all been controlled presumably by his father or his uncle. He was under-rated/under valued by west ham fans at the the time. The common theme was that Berkovic was doing the creative stuff, and Frank was first in the opposition box to grab the glory of the goals.
Kissing the chelsea badge, celebrating goals against us like they were world cup winning efforts, and a general feeling that he was happy to get out of the club came across (at least to me, the humble season ticket holder) as confrontational - hence the resentment. Had he have left in the style that Rio did, looking generally sad and with good things to say about the fans I don't think any of this would have kicked up.
Reo-coker had gone through a pretty ordinary patch, from his previous excellent season (Hammer of the year or runner up perhaps?) to cupping his ear in front of the BML after scoring a 1 yard tap in against Man Utd. There was a general arrogance that rubbed fans up the wrong way.
Behrami had the chance to be a fans favourite due to his style and effort. Unfortunately, it just didn't seem to amount to much end result. We won't ever know the full facts there about whether he was genuinely injured but I'm pretty sure he did have a nasty injury with us that kept him out for a good few months.
My point here from all of this is that if we continue to make scape goats out of players for refusing to conform to our ideals we lose the respect of those that make the effort to bond with the fans both during and after their time with the club. I wish him well, and good luck to him.