Antonio details on-pitch chat after incident during West Ham v Leeds
West Ham United striker Michail Antonio has revealed details of an on-pitch conversation he had with Leeds United player Stuart Dallas last weekend.
The Jamaican was booked on 24 minutes after a late lunge and Northern Ireland’s Dallas was quick to confront Antonio after the incident.
The 31-year-old revealed all on the Footballer’s Football Podcast which he hosts alongside Newcastle striker Callum Wilson.
“I’ve taken a bit of a heavy touch, we’ve both gone in 50/50, he’s got to the ball just before me and I’ve caught him,” said Antonio.
“I think it was a yellow because I was a little bit late but it wasn’t a questionable red.
“Dallas came up to me on the pitch and he’s gone ‘Ooh that was a bit naughty’
“I was like ‘naughty? It wasn’t naughty, it wouldn’t even get VARed that’.”
We need more like this
Premier League football and the players, in particular, seem so far separated from the supporters who pay their hard-earned money each week to cheer them on.
Very few of them are giving themselves a platform like this to reveal a little bit more insight into the goings-on in the middle.
Antonio and Wilson regularly digest their own weekend’s action on the podcast and it is really refreshing to hear them speak about it, not confined to club PR speak.
We definitely need to hear more like this from other players in the Premier League and even further afield to stop the beautiful game from escaping beyond the fans.
It helps, of course, that Antonio and Wilson are good friends off the pitch and their chemistry shines through but they surely aren’t the only good mates in the entire Premier League?
Media departments at clubs could do with relaxing the limits on players doing this kind of thing.
In other West Ham news, this EFL cub are ready to receive bids for their star man with the Hammers interested.