You could never say being a West Ham fan is easy could you? However we came to be Hammers fans, and there are lots of differing reasons, the long road through life can be hard enough without the heart strings being continually tugged by that lot in Claret and Blue. For every precious moment there are a hundred blows. For every silver lining there are a thousand black clouds. If it was not hard enough watching an underperforming side this season in a new stadium of such discontent, after all the gloss and glamour of last season, now we have Dimitri Payet refusing to play for the team. I remember when Martin Peters wanted out and went to Spurs. Gutted. I remember when it became too hard to hang on to Joe Cole and Michael Carrick and they went off to further their careers quite substantially at other clubs. Gutted. There are so many examples of this trend in our history and the likes of Frank Lampard and Jermaine Defoe have been forgiven by many as the years have passed, for their Judas like actions when they were young players at our club. For the record I don’t buy the excuse that Frank had no option to leave because his dad was sacked. Life is tough enough –suck it up.
But Payet has done this before at St Etienne and does not have the excuse that he is young and does not understand what he is doing. See what I did there? He knows exactly what he is doing. Bilic has said as much – that Payet told him of his intentions on Tuesday and Slav gave him the opportunity to change his mind on Thursday, prior to the press conference. Payet held his ground. Now this has come to a head all the ITK’s and “experts” have come out with their stories. I am no expert and I am not an ITK (though I did have a very real insider many years ago and to be honest he never told me too much). But, if you read all their stories they differ quite a bit. Some claim Payet has been disgruntled all season. Others say that this is a recent thing and the tapping up of the player only occurred just prior to the January window. Going by what Slaven Bilic said in his interview it would appear to be the latter that is closer to the mark. However, many media reports also suggest that a deal was done at the start of the season that Payet could leave at the end of the season as he wanted away then. It is all very confusing and hopefully, one day soon, the true light will be shed. Social media is in a frenzy at the moment and some of the vitriol spat at the player is understandable as fans emotions go into over drive. The situation will calm eventually as time will always heal to some degree, but if the owners are hoping that we can rebuff all offers for the player by the end of the window and he will come back and play his part for us for the remainder of the season, tis wishful thinking I think?Talking of our owners. You know, the ones we have been banging on about for years to keep quiet – yep, you guessed it. The silence is deafening. Even young Jack must be in a straight jacket, the only way to stop those twiddling thumbs. Lovely though isn’t it? Some have said that they should at least come out and voice a support for the manager. You know, the one they might sack in a fortnight? For once they have done the right thing. Sort this out behind closed doors. An announcement has been made. No bullshit – the truth has come out. Well, as much as they need to tell us anyway at this point in time..
I was one of the ones giving Payet the benefit of the doubt for a poorer season. For me his lack of tracking back, tackling and general intensity was no different from last season. Difference was – we were winning last season. His free kicks, yep, the ones he says he never practices in training, have gone pear shaped and his corners have been even poorer. But then the whole team has been poor on so many occasions as well. I have said on the blog many times recently that Cresswell has not been offering himself anywhere near as much as last season, as an overlapping option. This surely would affect Payet’s performances, the loss of such an important foil in his game? Now I am starting to wonder whether Cresswell just could not be bothered? Why bust a gut for Payet? He isn’t trying anyway and wants away and he gets all the fans accolades to boot! Stuff him. Perhaps this is the attitude of a lot of the players? We will only know the answer to this over the next few weeks. Results won’t necessarily tell us the answer but the players intensity will.
At the beginning of the transfer window I was wondering why we were after Snodgrass? There are three much more important areas of the team that need to be strengthened. Snodgrass is a very poor mans Payet (at anywhere near his best), but he will offer similar attributes to the team with a lot more graft albeit a lot less guile. Obviously someone knew something a few weeks ago? I would not even rule out Ayew yet. I have always thought that wide left in Payets position is where he would be best suited. Time will tell.
I also wonder whether Bilic’s position has actually been strengthened by all the events of this week? He has handled himself with great dignity once again in what has been a difficult season for him. The owners might see that this could be a fresh start for the manager, especially if we can break through and make a few key signings this window. It will be interesting to see firstly how the team react this weekend and secondly how the fans react to this week’s events in the stadium? The expression “you couldn’t make it up” comes to mind with the knowledge that Big Sam is coming to play on Saturday! Those football Gods certainly know how to tug the emotions to breaking point.
Finally, the big decision that has to be made is whether the club let Payet go this window? I guess if the right offer was made we would be foolish not to accept and move on. However, from what has been said so far, Payet wants to go back to France which would rule out a big offer from say Chelsea, Arsenal or the Moaning ones being an option. Personally I doubt Marseille will stump up enough money and that will leave Mr Payet right up the creek without a paddle. Bilic has already said that Payet won’t be sold this January and that may well be the case. But as we all know too well, money talks louder than words.
If you are going to the game this weekend try and make sure that the Super Slav song gets going right at the start. Sing long and sing loud. Make sure Sam doesn’t have to cup his ear. Our current manager needs all the support he can get at the moment.