I honestly don’t know what it is about West Ham United, but players seem to leave — and immediately start thriving.
The latest example is Luis Guilherme, who has wasted no time getting his career in Portugal up and running, scoring for Sporting Lisbon last night.
The 19-year-old was labelled one of Brazil’s three wonderkids when West Ham signed him from Palmeiras under the guidance of Tim Steidten. Yet under three successive managers, Guilherme never really got a proper run in the Hammers side and was sold to Sporting this summer for around £14 million including add-ons.
Playing in the Taça de Portugal, Guilherme opened the scoring in Sporting’s 3–2 win — cutting in from the wing and curling a lovely effort in from distance. A lovely goal by all accounts.
Luis Guilherme missed West Ham’s opener due to injury
Flourishing Everywhere But East London
It’s becoming a worrying pattern. Players depart the London Stadium and suddenly look reborn (with the exception of Mohammed Kudus of course).
We’ve already seen it recently with Niclas Füllkrug and Callum Marshall after their January exits, and now Guilherme is following the same script.
At this point, I’m just grateful that James Ward-Prowse is ineligible to face Burnley on Saturday — because knowing our luck, he’d probably curl in a free-kick against us too.
Not only kids!! How about a long line of strikers as well. Poor coaching ,bad vibes and a general collective incompetence surrounding the club are to blame . Sullivan and Brady must move on before it can improve.
Ever since the last year or so of Moyes Westham’s coaching has been awful . We all remember so many brilliant coaches leaving and never replaced with equal quality . There was no plan whatsoever for Guyilherme resulting in a purgatory for him of virtually no match time any where . We all remember so many great players coming to Westham , having a good season and then ever diminishing performances season on season . Most players need constant quality coaching to remain at their best or improve and Westham for years now have skimped on coaching leading to a team that can’t defend or be creative .
It probably says something about our managers. Time will tell if Steidten got it wrong or not. Does Traore actually provide more of an effective attacking threat than Guilherme?
I’m afraid this wondering kid was always going to succeed when he was given the chance to play for a proper team/ manager, far too good for a team like us, too young , too much flair for a defensive minded dinosaur like our present manager, can only hope he does well at a club where his talents are appreciated.
Guilherme and the other Palmeiras young players were seen as the future of the Brasil Seleção and had huge release clauses put in their first (and only) full professional contracts – Guilherme‘s was around £50m – to try to ensure that Palmeiras (and other clubs in Brasil) were not ripped off by rich European clubs and that their full value could be invested in the clubs that developed them.
Brasilian clubs and their coaching teams are skilled as assessing their young players (they rely on them for success and to keep afloat when selling them), and wouldn’t put huge release clauses on young players unless they had confidence in their future development and potential to make the Seleção.
As long as Sporting make the Champions League next season, I expect Guilherme to be in their CL squad and to shine when he does play. Playing regularly and putting in match winning performances in Portugal could even give Guilherme an outside chance of making the Seleção for this summer’s WC squad (if others are injured etc).
3 mangers had a look at him an didn’t fancy him
And The Portuguese league isn’t the premier league
This is where we get things horribly wrong.
We should have loaned him out to European clubs. Let him grow and then see if he can step up in the Premier league. Completely short sighted but probably necessary due to the transfer mess of the last 2-3 years
Re: Guillerme. With all due respect to Portugal my parrot could also do well there.
Look at Pedro. Was tearing it up in Portugal but is still finding his feet here. PL is a lot different from
Portugal. More intense and slower.
Yes he could’ve been given the opportunity more in first team but he may have been lacking mental application in training or physicality. We don’t know. 🤷🏻♂️
Am not sure it’s a surprise given the managers we hire, I was foolishly hopeful with Potter, in respect to Guilherme he was never likely to oust Bowen though showed the right attitude keeping his head down and trying to break through. Am happy for him that he is at a club where he can flourish.
If he really takes off there was a sell on clause inserted which at least provides a level of insurance that we might realise a profit in the future.
Morning Gonzo.
I think for every success story who leaves WH there is a failure. Too many to name but I suspect there are more fails than success stories.
Luis is just an example of how poor we are at handling youth and creating a pathway that makes them feel wanted and part of the team.
My bigger concern is what relegation will mean with losing the likes of Diouf, Fernandes, Taty, Summerville, Bowen, AWB, probably Todibo. Pretty much guts the team like it did under the Roeder relegation and therefore takes us years to recover and become competitive again at the top level.
This relegation could set the club back 6-7 years.
Not sure Sully can look back to fondly on his tenure, he got lucky with the success under Moyes and other than counting his money it’s been one massive fail.
Good morning to you too Jimbo . . . it’s actually stopped raining here for the first time in nearly 2 weeks!
As for Sullivan, I think he believes his tenure/legacy will be defined by Prague. I suspect it will more likely be the move from Upton Park and shoddy recruitment.
Gonzo – the morning after Prague I felt Sullivan embodied the man who believed he had achieved his goal. I watched him as those who deserved the plaudits stood waiting to collect their winners medals. He looked like his dream had been realised and not that of a man who looked forward to the next piece of silverware adorning the trophy cabinet. His pinnacle reached and legacy secured was enough – narcissism is a very ugly trait
Massive mistake in selling him
If they wanted to get him game time they should have sent him out on loan.
All he wanted was a run of games
We have let so many young players leave
We must make sure that any players coming through are given a chance and signed up on long contracts
And want the club run well so the youngsters feel there is hope for them
We do need Sullivan and co to move on, their time is well up
From my point of view he should of been sent on loan to sporting to find some form however a relegation battle in the premier league isn’t the place for that.
So if the players representative and sporting weren’t interested in a loan he had to be sold.
Let’s be honest we were only a stepping stone anyway it’s just a shame there isn’t any memories or huge profits.
It’s hardly rocket science. Defensive coaches can’t cope with quality. Sully can’t hire a proper coach to save his life
Playing in the Portuguese league is very different to playing in the Premier League, the same of course goes for the Germany 2nd division. As for Füllkrug I’m not sure I’d class getting 1 goal from the bench setting a poor Serie A alight.
Regarding Luis Guilherme, the top level of competition in Portugal is obviously a lot lower than the English Premier League. For another comparison, Pablo Felipe was scoring goals for fun over there. How many has he scored for West Ham so far? It’s a very round number!
How can a player grow and thrive under a manager if he knows he’s gone every 6 months.
when he moved, the new club talked him up and played him for day 1, but there is one problem at west ham.
The club is always in crisis and no managers have long enough to make long term strategic decisions on players.
it’s always here and now.
As a general, the league he’s in now is not as competitive as the premier league, but time will tell…
Look at Gyokeres’s stats in the Portugese league.
Look at them now.
Anyone know if we got a sell on clause in the deal?
Apparently so Geoff
HAHAHAHA……