An irrational hatred of Snodgrass

Robert Snodgrass had a tough act to follow after being bought in Slaven Bilic to replace Dimitri Payet. Paying £10.2m to Hull City he was never going to live up to Dimi’s reputation and it was perhaps very unfair to compare him at the time.

He started just eight games for West Ham with a further seven substitute appearances with no goals but was often played out of position by the manager.

Alarm bells started ringing from his very first West Ham game as Bilic prepared to introduce Snodgrass from the bench against Manchester City just days after his big-money move from Hull.

Snodgrass explained last summer to the press: “I was coming on against City and he said ‘Where do you want to play, on the left or right? I thought ‘You have just signed me and I have played on the right or behind the striker at Hull City all season’ That was my debut and alarm bells were ringing right away. I found it very strange and I realised from the off that it wasn’t going to happen. Every time I played I was on the left. I don’t know why he did it. I joined as Dimitri Payet left and maybe it was a case of ‘you can play there. But I’d only filled in on the left on a couple of occasions. I hate that position but when you are Scottish you are brought up to play anywhere.

“It’s fine to play for one or two games but you need to play in your right position, especially on the back of scoring nine goals for Hull. At that stage nobody had scored more goals for Hull or West Ham. The manager was under a lot of pressure and I later said that out of respect I didn’t want to go in and see him during that period. But when I eventually did speak to him I said I thought he would have known I wasn’t a left-midfielder and that he must have watched me after signing me for that type of money.

Things went from bad to worst for Snodgrass when David Sullivan told the Guardian “The manager said he wanted Fonte from Southampton and Snodgrass from Hull, my kids begged me not to sign them.”

At the time Snodgrass laughed it off and sarcastically replied on Twitter “Thanks for your support  MR CHAIRMAN”

Then came Snodgrass’s loan to Aston Villa. He was an instant fan’s favourite in the Midlands starting 38 games and repaying their faith in him with 7 goals and 14 assists to get in a Playoff final.

West Ham was set for a £1m promotion bonus if Villa had won the play-off final and they had an option to buy him for £12m which they planned to exercise but it was not meant to be.

Snodgrass has returned pre-season with no grudges under a new manager with a clean slate. He seems to have proved himself so far in pre-season and he recently told a fan at a boxing event he would be staying at West Ham to fight for his place.

I think it is time we gave Snodgrass the benefit of the doubt too and wiped the slate clean from a fan’s point of view.