Keeping players away from Social Media accounts would generally seem a good thing: Who can forget the Jhon Duran crossed Hammers furore of a couple of seasons ago which landed the Colombian in hot water with Aston Villa supporters when his move collapsed?
However just occasionally the posts offer genuine insight into what is going on behind the scenes. Carefully curated PR shots from official club sources are all well and good, but sometimes moods and stories are better captured by what is said – or not said – on line.
Soungoutou Magassa’s social media posting landed the ‘want-away’ in hot water this summer as he sanitised accounts to remove any reference, link or story that was remotely West Ham connected in a pretty obvious statement that he wanted nothing further to do with the east London club as he and his agent agitated for a move which in the end didn’t materialise. Whoops.
You’d feel there’s a large slab of humble pie being eaten by the Frenchman just now with his latest posting being captured by various users, Ryan amongst them, asking the question as to whether Magassa’s contrition is likely to lead to a recall for the Carling Cup as Nuno seeks to rest his regulars:
No comment made by the player, obviously deciding that his ‘see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil‘ three-monkey emojis speaks volumes on its own. Whether it gets him back in Nuno’s good books is another matter.
If anything the Portuguese manager is less forgiving than West Ham fans who will likely understand the young man’s error of his ways this time and welcome him back providing he puts in a shift and keeps his gob shut – as Jarrod Bowen put a tad more eloquently.
Anyone so young, who can play like Magassa did against Liverpool, shouldn’t be discarded,.
If he was able to force himself through hard training and exceptional play as a sub, into the current 11, would not only be worthwhile but also keep his value.
At the end of the day, if we get promoted, we are going to require a squad of Premiership level players, and Magassa is one who could be….. but he is going to have work his socks off to get there.