‘Collateral damage’ from a below-par start to a season is already visible. Apart from the obvious lack of Premier League points, West Ham have accumulated the wrong kind of records, sendings-off and reports of player – coach bust ups. The wider picture shows players out of form, media talk of hitherto-successful team members such as Mo Kudus being dropped from the Irons’ first team and most lately, one or two very high-profile Hammers being dropped from their national teams.
Some for example, Edson Alvarez, Mohammed Kudus, Lucas Paquetá and Konstantinos Mavropanos have kept their places in their countries’ squads.
Jarrod Bowen as we wrote yesterday has been left our of Lee Carsley’s England XI for the upcoming friendlies. Another West Ham international – and World Cup winning member of the Irons playing squad, Guido Rodriguez, has been left out of the Argentina squad and has been the subject of considerable South American media criticism, not just for his form and exclusion from the Argentina squad, but also about his choice to join West Ham United in the summer.
Estadiodeportivo.com in their article from 29th September, went on the offensive and claimed:” Rodriguez made a mistake in leaving Betis for West Ham after refusing to sign a new deal“; Writing, with a certain amount of South American schadenfreude, that he has suffered a downturn in form following his choosing to leave Real Bétis and sign for West Ham instead.
Claiming in their headlines that this is “one of the worst pieces of news” for Rodriguez and a “moral blow” after his departure for London. Another article by the same outlet proclaims ‘Lopetegui blames Guido Rodriguez’, and confirms – on whichever continent the publication may lie, that a glimmer of truth doesn’t seem a requirement necessary to make a headline.
The whole thrust of their articles seems to be ‘If only he’d stayed in Argentina, he’d still be in the team’. I doubt whether that has anything to do with it. Argentina’s current manager is a former Hammer himself!
Lionel Scaloni, the former West Ham right back who came within 3 minutes of being part of a West Ham FA Cup winning squad in 2006.
Scaloni is unlikely to care if his players are in London or Lima, to be honest – probably Rodriguez’ lack of selection is down to the fact that there are better performing players just now in the squad including Exequiel Palacios and Enzo Fernandez.
And, truth be told, being an average performer in a team with average results opens the way for other ‘selections.
As West Ham’s results recover, so the confidence will return along with the call-ups for Rodriguez who will by that time be faster and fitter than he was when he arrived – and much more of an asset to his national side.