Danny Murphy hopes what he’s told about West Ham player live on air isn’t true – ‘Ridiculous’
West Ham United’s woes go on after falling to a pretty resounding defeat to Brentford on Monday night.
Igor Thiago and Mathias Jensen earned Brentford a 2-0 win against West Ham at the London Stadium in Nuno Espirito Santo’s first home game in charge.
Nuno was questioned over a “ridiculous” West Ham team selection decision, which ultimately did not pay off in another disappointing display.
Danny Murphy questioned some of the decisions Nuno made during the game, too, one of which he was shared further details on after the contest.
Danny Murphy shocked at Callum Wilson contract clause
West Ham are very much in a relegation scrap on the basis of the first eight matches, with a massive clash away at Leeds United to come on Friday.
While Nuno can be expected to make some changes, certain names just certainly will not get a look in at Elland Road.
James Ward-Prowse is completely out of the picture under Nuno, for example, while striker Callum Wilson also cannot get any playing time.
Nuno once again opted for Callum Marshall from the substitutes’ bench against Leeds rather than turning to the more experienced Wilson, who was an unused substitute.
Murphy was perplexed by that decision, but was informed by Adrian Durham live on talkSPORT at full-time that Wilson has a pay-as-you-play clause in his contract.
It was implied that Nuno turned to Callum Marshall over his namesake for that reason, which Murphy hoped was not the case.
“Let’s hope to god that has nothing to do with it,” Murphy said. “I’ve heard of that before in my day but didn’t know it was still a thing.
“That’s ridiculous. This team needs to stay in the division and it’ll be cheaper playing him if he keeps you in the division.”
What is Callum Wilson’s Premier League record?
Wilson is as experienced as they come at Premier League level, having got 244 appearances under his belt in the competition.
The nine cap England international has scored 89 goals and would have been confident of smashing the 100 barrier after joining West Ham in the summer.
| Games (starts) | Minutes | Goals | xG | Touches in opp. box |
| 5 (1) | 171 | 1 | 1.09 | 13 |
However, Wilson has been restricted to just one start in the Premier League this season – the 2-1 home loss to Crystal Palace on 20 September – with his other four outings coming as a sub.
That totals just 171 minutes on the field, across which time he has generated an expected goals (xG) return of 1.09 and has scored one goal.
That suggests he has done about as much as he can with his opportunities, the next of which he will hope is not too far away.
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