Pelle puts his foot down!
Manuel Pellegrini is beginning to demonstrate all the virtues that led the board to invest £10 million a year in his managerial abilities.
He appears to have nipped any Marko Arnautovic rebellion in the bud before it gets the remotest chance of blossoming.
However, it won’t come as a surprise to me if at some stage it leaks out that Arnautovic decided he didn’t want to play and left the manager with no choice.
It wouldn’t be that hard to believe but in reality I believe Pelle had made the decision not to play him based on what he’s seen on the training ground during the week.
In deciding to exclude him from tomorrow’s match at Bournemouth – as has now been widely reported – he has made it crystal clear that no player is bigger than West Ham United.
It’s quality management and a quality decision – a nice reminder that although Marko’s ego has often landed, the manager is unimpressed by reputations and past achievements and will do whatever is best for the team.
For this match at least the striker has been told in the nicest possible way that he can ‘do one’ if he is not 100 per cent focused on helping the team take its points tally to 34 for the season.
I like Marko Arnautovic as a player but I can do without the ego which in any walk of life is a pretty destructive force and although he may not realise it, the boss as a result of his decision to drop him, is doing him a favour.
Tthe greats that I recall – Mooro, Beckanbauer, Pele, Charlton, Best, Law, Hurst and so many others – had nothing like the amount of self obsession the Austrian displays.
And whilst he is a good player for us, being taken down a peg or two, and perhaps eventually being allowed to leave if he gets the hump big time, is okay in my book. I trust Pelle to sort that out when it happens.
West Ham has needed a manager like Pellegrini for a very long time and given his recognition of the youngsters on his books at the club I seriously hope a certain Xande Silva gets his chance at some stage tomorrow.
As far as predictions are concerned I’ll go for a 2-0 Hammers win after Bournemouth’s disastrous recent run of results.
And that would be brilliant whilst demonstrating to the Arnautovics that their transfer window games are a waste of of everybody’s time.
Arnie is a very good player but not in the same league as Nasri or Anderson, in his head he is like Ibrahimovic but in reality he is nowhere close.