It’s all to easy to stand on the sidelines rubbishing suggestions that the speculation surrounding Mark Arnautovic in particular and other in general should have no impact on the team.
There have been some who took a pop at Pablo Zabaleta for making it clear how upsetting such situations can be but now Mark Noble has come out and said much the same.
I don’t believe that players sit around looking for handy excuses for bad defeats because they are normally too busy coming out with the “we must step up…we must to better” stuff
Zaba made his points and Mark Noble – writing in the Evening Standard – says much the same so it’s worth taking note.
However, the talking has to stop after tomorrow night and should we collapse to defeat again the transfer window chat will sound like empty talk.
In the meantime it’s worth listening to the captain who has some pretty forceful views on the situation and how it may have affected performances.
He said -talking of Zaba: “As a team-mate, when you see so many things around the team, speculation about players going or coming in, it can distract a little bit from the atmosphere in the dressing room.”
Zabaleta was right and it hasn’t been ideal at all.
Everyone knows how it works. Agents are very active during the window and there is no way players concerned can prepare properly for a game when that is happening.
West Ham are just one of a number of Premier League clubs who always brace themselves for some intense interest in their players during January .
Look at Chelsea. They have also been at the centre of plenty of transfer speculation so maybe their heavy defeat at Bournemouth was not quite the surprise it seemed.
We are a club who can attract players with big reputations, perhaps because we’re in London and that makes us an attractive proposition.
If they are not always in the team, they can understandably become restless. Especially in these days of social media, their friends and family are maybe asking them: “Why are you not in the team? You’ve played at top clubs.”
The Premier League is so unforgiving that, if two or three players are not quite there, then we will suffer.
At the moment, we only have 15 fit first-team players and if you look at the past six weeks, we’ve played a lot of games and that has had a cumulative effect.
Issa Diop has played every match since he made his debut at Arsenal in August and could probably do with a rest but, at the moment, we haven’t got any alternatives.
However, let’s not be too down. We’re still in a reasonable position and the Premier League is so unpredictable.
Noble by name, How Noble, by nature……….
As ManU players epitomised, it is today’s players who decide if, when and for whom they turn up.
Certain West Ham players have admirably demonstrated the same since Allardyce’s departure.
Far too many think, because they are paid a king’s ransom, it means they are better than the dross they actually are.
It remains to be seen whether Pellegrini actually has the strength of his convictions once he has a full complement to select from.
Unfortunately, it is no longer the fans who actually fund the wages……..
Let’s have it right they are professional players and should be giving more effort no matter what. Enough excuses and for Antonio to come out on top and say it’s complacency is a joke. Compacencu when their paid handsome wages to do their job , well go out there and do it. To much player power if I was managing them half of them would be in the reserves until they show better attitude end of .