West Ham Till I Die
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The GoatyGav Column

Writing Players Off

Happy New Year WHTIDers. May 2021 bring you health, wealth and happiness and an end to the pandemic.

It was business as usual in the Thurston household with Turkey, Games, Mince Pies and the odd glass or three. The oldest turned eighteen over the holidays as well so we tried our utmost to make his day special despite the lockdown restrictions. Over eleven minutes of video messages from friends and family were edited alongside over two hundred photos, some of which were cheesy bordering on the embarrassing, which started his day on a particularly bright note. If any of you have special numbered birthdays of loved ones coming up I can recommend putting this together and playing through your biggest screen in the house to kick their day off. I used Shotcut, which can be downloaded for free, to stitch and transition the clips together before adding music. The time and effort was well worth it to see the look on the lad’s face.

It seems that, in years gone by, our beloved club has had a knack for signing aged journeymen with long injury histories. While that’s improved in more recent times some of our most talented players have, unfortunately, collected serious injuries while at the club. The focus of today’s piece is mainly around one of those squad members…Manuel Lanzini.

I’ve written a similar article to this over the last year which sparked a, should he stay or go, debate. Since that time Sebastien Haller has had a good crack at the whip to prove he can cut it, with us, in the Prem. For me he’s now come to the point where, I believe, the club should recognise that he’s not suited to top level English football and should cut their losses. I wanted Seb to do well and genuinely believed that, when he signed at the start of last season, we’d finally got our twenty goal a season man. He reminded me of Dean Ashton in much of his style of play and footballing ability but seems to be completely lacking in the strength needed to hold Premier League defenders off. Many, including me, expected Kevin Nolan to be able to bring the, on pitch, bully out of him but, sadly, there’s absolutely no sign that this is happening. Despite the squad seeming to like him, and my desire to see him succeed despite many family and friends becoming exasperated with him, I genuinely believe it would be best for all parties concerned if he now moved on.

Back to Manu there is a growing split in the fanbase between those who believe his best days are behind him, and that he should move on to pastures new, and those who think he has great value to the club and can still make a big contribution. Beyond a shadow of a doubt I sit in the latter category. I guess some of this might depend upon what you see when he plays. Do you look at how he changed the game after coming on at Crystal Palace and against the Spuds or do you see the player who struggled to get in to the game when he started against Southampton. Perhaps, in the short term, there’s something to be said for him operating from the bench. His impact on matches when coming on as a substitute appear to leave his starting line-up appearances in the shadows.

Going back to the season ’17-’18 Manu was on fire. Every aspect of his game from his creativity to his graft, tracking down and tackling, which is often an underrated aspect of his play, was on point. He seemed to emerge from the shadow of Dimitri Payet, who he played well alongside but was somewhat put in the shade by, as our best attacking player by some distance. His tremendous performances earned him his, long sought after, call up to the Argentinian World Cup squad. After playing well in the warm ups for that competition the ACL injury happened in training with La Albiceleste. An injury as serious in nature as that used to finish careers but Manu worked hard to return to the profession that he, so obviously, loves.

Given time Manu can continue his recovery back to being one of the top performing players in our squad. He may never be the same as he was just before the injury but I, for one, believe that he’s more than worthy of our patience and will repay us by the truckload. Even if he does play as an impact sub, until he’s fully confident and flying again, I think it would be a serious mistake to let him go and I hope to be singing “Ain’t nobody like Lanzini,” from the stands again next season. Conversely I was extremely disappointed to see Manu pictured at a party over the Christmas period. It really irks me that football players seem to think that the rules don’t apply to them and they can do whatever they want. Overall I don’t think that the game is doing enough to come down on offenders and I’d like to see more serious repercussions for them. We have to abide by the rules, and have made sacrifices for the greater good, so why not them. Frankly another thing that puts me off the game at the top level.

No report on the Women’s matches this week due to the lack of matches. Let’s hope their successes continue after the confident four-nil defeat of Bristol City…although with Manchester City up next that’s no easy task.

Next up for the Premier League two team is a trip to Chelsea. If the lads can continue to play well then I’m sure the results will start to come. Last time out at Everton the U23s played very well and were unlucky to come away empty handed so best of luck to them on the fifteenth of Jan.

Have a good, or at least the best possible, week all.

Cheers

Gav

COYI!

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