It used to happen a lot, just as the police closed in, so the traitors would flee to the other side of the Iron Curtain, trading incarceration in the UK for the Communist version of "freedom". But I thought that sort of thing had gone out of fashion. Not at West Ham it seems. Fresh on the heels of Obinna, who faced trial for crimes against footballing decision making, Manuel da Costa is now heading further East, trading the N Power Championship for the Nuclear Powered Communistship to escape the long arm of the British Law.
Like Obinna, da Costa, it seems, is intent on doing the locomotion in Moscow. If the reported fee - £1.3million - is true then we are making a very grave error but maybe it is the only viable option given Manuel faces a trial for sexual assault at Snaresbrook Crown Court. Another unhappy chapter in the history of West Ham may be about to close, remembering that da Costa arrived as part of the deal that relieved us of the services of wonderkid - as in wonder where he is? - Savio.
Nani strikes again!
do you really think we will miss da costa? i lost count of the number of times he was meant to be marking someone and they put it in the back of the net with da costa stood 5 yards away! he cant speak a word of english, surely a defence that can all talk to each other is essentail considering how shocking it has been recently. he sexually assaults women and might of got banged up anyway. no doubt he is a monster in the air but most of the time he is a rock for 70 minutes then goes mental and either crumbles and end up shipping 3 0r 4 or just turns off and again we concede goals. really? has it come to this, mourning a guy that all he can do is head a ball...and to be honest he even lost a fair few headers that cost us goals in the run in aswel
ReplyDeleteBut £1.3million seems cheap!
ReplyDeleteHF, maybe Sam just said "get him the hell out of here".
ReplyDeleteSo they did.
We have a guy in charge that knows how to play the transfer game. I agree it seems cheap, and if it were Moron in charge I'd have been concerned. But Sam? I'm cool.
Best leap I've ever seen on a centreback. We will miss him
ReplyDeleteDespite his shortcomings and bad command of the English language Da Costa was our best defender. A very sad day for West Ham if this is true!
ReplyDeleteI agree with USA Dave, Big Sam is a man with a plan, plus he only had a year left on his contract so could have gone for nothing in just over a years time. As 22:13 said, he wasn't all that anyway!
ReplyDeleteWe can only hope that there is more to this than meets the eye, and his move is the right move. Must admit he did seem to be another loose cannon and possibly would not have fitted into a 'Big Sam' well drilled defence. Possibly Sam also wants players who can understand English it would certainly be a requirement if I was in his position
ReplyDelete1.3m is cheap but he only had a year on his contract, add to that all his short comings i mentioned in my first post, add his court case and he was a nani signing. funny they all went on the cheap. however, no doubt faye and tompkins will befirst choice, young jordan spence is close to signing a new deal and no doubt in my mind big sam has a replacemnt cb lined up that can actually defend for 90 minutes, mark a man and speak english at half wages. who will more importantly be part of a defensive unit i liked da costa a lot but he was like a square peg in a round hole, if he wanted his teamates to push up or drop back or cover him he couldnt comunicate it to them and did his own thing, often leaving the guy he was marking free. no doubt he had passion and could leap (apart from when he needed to to stop a goal).
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that moving to Russia will make an improvement to his career. I still believe in the qualities of Manuel da Costa for the future, he had great formation in clubs such as PSV and Fiorentina (very good forming defenders like almost all Italian clubs).
ReplyDeleteIn May 2006 he was considered one of the most promising young defenders in Europe, refusing to play for France under-21 to play for Portugal.
So much potential... he needs to be more patient citing that he is moving because he didn't get in the hammers team for every game.
We don't have an extradition treaty with Russia, but if Locomotion qualify for Champions league football the EU arrest warrant will cause him all sorts of trouble as will travelling in Europe for his summer holiday - therefore I can't see him doing a runner.
ReplyDeleteIt was tongue in cheek mate.
ReplyDelete