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Bilic breaks Antonio silence

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Michail-AntSlaven Bilic appears to be sending out mixed messages on the future of Michail Antonio.

The manager’s attitude towards the £7 million signing has been closely examined over recent weeks and he has now broken his silence on the player.

He is reported in The Wharf as saying: ” “We were short of players in that position when we brought him to the club, then we got a few more players in at the end of the transfer window.

“He hasn’t had the chance because of the number of players we had. We were playing good and we didn’t change a lot.”

“I’ve had a few chats with him and he’s working hard and is a good player – that’s why we brought him. Now we’ve had a few injuries that we didn’t want I’ve told him that his chance will come.

Like any other player he has to prove himself in training and to convince me and the member of my staff. He’s working hard and his chance will probably come soon.”

It’s an interesting explanation and appears to cover all ends against the middle by declaring on the one hand his chance “will probably come soon” (my italics) whilst at the same time saying “he has to prove he is a member of his staff.”

ClaretandHugh revealed earlier today however, that the manager had resisted the advances of five Championship clubs who had wanted to take him in the emergency loan market so that will offer the player some hope that he will soon be used.

Michail – it would seem from that – is in the manager’s mind although at £7 million – a substantial amount of money in West Ham terms – to still be having to prove himself is something of an eyebrow raiser!

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

7 comments

  • bubbles says:

    Easy target Noble ….. Why would that be ? Perhaps it is because he cannot …tackle , head the ball , take a corner make a killer pass and as for slow how can you compare Moore to Noble ? To mention them in the same context shows your total lack of knowledge about the game . Carroll is in the team because we , apparently, haven’t got anyone else . As you say he is a waste of space .

  • jaybs says:

    Here we go again, easy target Noble, from a supporter of 50 years as well, I Believe Noble is playing to Slavs instructions, not perfect but he is doing well and never gets credit due, some of his passes have been spot on, some say he is slow, well was Moore ever fast? if he is championship then what does that put Carroll, only in the team due to his stupid salary! someone claimed on another site that Andy is world class, choked on my breakfast.

  • bubbles says:

    Spot on bubs. Noble is the root cause of our problems . As you say 100% for loyalty and effort but 0% for everything else . I am an avid supporter of 50 years service and it is one of the best squads i have seen . However there is a section of the crowd that have become used to mediocrity and scream for Noble to play for England ….. what a joke , he is Championship player at best . Shame is that he is banned when our best players are injured so anyone coming in will have a hard time. Poyet is out on loan when he should now be pushing to play as Song is not yet 100% fit .

  • bubs says:

    Are you interested in Antonio or just rubishing Hugh,
    What I saw of his goals fo forest he has real ability in front of goal and we need that,
    I understand why Slav has not changed his front players until now because it was working well, BUT
    with Payet not available we need to change things up front and going backwards playing Carroll instead of Sakho up the middle does not work,Moses needs to play on his natural side,my car nicer is Noble he offers to s nothing except effort,
    His passing is woeful his tackles are poor he gets caught on the ball to often,
    He has no heading ability because of his height,although his captaincy is 100% he gives away stupid free kicks gets booked and cause arguments that does not help the team,
    We can not start matches expecting are 3 forwards to spend more time tracking back if we want them to create chances,
    Our defence is leaking goals because are full backs are there to use as wingers and not to
    Defend,so Kouyate does not get the freedom to join the front 3
    Every fan can see this so we need to forget our loyalty to a home boy and move on
    If Mark can find his form I will be the first to call from r his return,
    We can be critics and still love our club,we will come through this and it’s great to be entertained in the West Ham way even if the losses come as part of it,that’s why I will be a Hammer until I die,
    COYI

  • AnyOldIron says:

    gobbledegook – and as for “my italics” of course they are! it’s impossible to speak in italics

  • WestGoaHam says:

    I would think he means Antonio must prove himself to Bilic and his coaching staff.

  • canchaz says:

    “And to convince me and the member of my staff”…your quote of what Bilic said…”he has to prove .he is a member of his staff”
    Either this has been miswritten or it’s gobbledegook

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