Finally! Night out fact and fiction separated

Since the story of a so called ‘West Ham player bender’ was carried in the Sun newspaper on Wednesday we have been doing some fact checking of our own to see how much of it stands up.

We have had it confirmed by a West Ham insider that Slaven Bilic did have a meeting with players on Monday at the training ground at Rush Green and he did sanction a night out to help with team bonding.

We have been told  by the same insider that Bilic has not “lost the dressing room,” that morale is high on the training ground despite the results on the pitch and the players respect the manager.

A group of up to 16 players went to the Signor Sassi Italian restaurant in Knightsbridge without Slaven Bilic for a quiet meal and the vast majority of players left the restaurant to go home at a respectable time completely sober.

Those present at the dinner included Dimitri Payet, Mark Noble ,Winston Reid, Adrian, Alvaro Arbeloa, Manuel Lanzini, James Collins, Aaron Cresswell, Andy Carroll, Jonathan Calleri and Raphael Spiegel.

It appears a small minority of players decided the night was still young and went on to Cirque le Soir nightclub off Carnaby Street which opens at 11pm and  doesn’t close until 3am. Those guests are alleged to have been Andy Carroll, Darren Randolph and Aaron Cresswell.  It is here that the Sun claim the bill included “ten bottles of £340 Dom Perignon champagne and 100 shots of liquor.”

Carroll and Randolph were later spotted in a Borough Market pub called the Market Porter pub very early in the morning after reportedly pulling an all nighter and Cresswell, Carroll and Randolph were later photographed in McDonalds early morning.

Numerous sightings of Carroll and Randolph in Central London on Tuesday culminated in Shoreditch with a photo taken around 12.3opm on Tuesday afternoon following an incident in pizza restaurant called Voodoo Rays in Box Park in which a person matching Randolph’s appearance was asked to leave by security.

Andy Carroll has tried to deny reports he was partying with Randolph or that he appeared to be drunk on social media but I am not sure the club are buying his excuses and have vowed to fully investigate.

Some papers today have suggested that the story of Carroll and Randolph was a social media hoax or a joke after they tracked down the West Ham fan who first posted the Shoreditch picture of the pair on twitter.

However, ClaretandHugh have spoken the person who did take the picture which was posted on Instagram and he confirmed the real story.

He said: “I’d just like to clear this up as I have seen it has become a situation now, Carroll to be fair to him was ok, he shook my hand when I said hello and was polite.

“He  just looked knackered and had obviously been drinking.I t was Randolph who was rude and obviously smashed. I just feel a little bad for Andy as it was Randolph who was abusive”

A West Ham United spokesman told ClaretandHugh: “The club will be looking into these allegations and will deal with the players as we see fit”

If found to be guilty of bringing the reputation of the club into disrepute they could face disciplinary action including fines up to two weeks wages which could cost Carroll up to £170,000. That would be an expensive night out even by his standards.