Dermot Gallagher shares POV on rumoured Kurt Zouma incident during West Ham v Newcastle
Ex-FIFA referee Dermot Gallagher has shared what the referee could have done about the supposed incident between Chris Wood and Kurt Zouma during West Ham v Newcastle.
Reports spread after the game that Hammers defender Craig Dawson complained to referee Chris Kavanagh that Wood had been taunting defender Zouma with ‘meow’ noises, following off-field incidents recently.
While it hasn’t been confirmed or denied by either party, Sky Sports News asked Gallagher what the referee could do about it if it were true and he admitted there wasn’t much to be done.
“I find this hard to believe to be honest,” he said.
“I just can’t believe a player did that. But if a referee hears it he can have a quiet word with the player to ask him not to but it’s not really something to get too involved in, to be honest.”
Gamesmanship
This is something that Zouma and West Ham are just going to have to get used to if the French defender is to continue playing for the team.
Opposition fans and players will try anything to gain an advantage at the highest level, and if they can get into his head and force an error out of him then they’d be silly not to do it.
While it’s not nice for Zouma, it is realistically just one of those things. It’s no different to someone being mocked for scoring an own goal mid-game, or missing a big chance.
Zouma got through the game unscathed with a pretty good performance while Dawson got himself on the scoresheet, and as a duo they kept Wood out of the goals.
The Hammers need to ignore these attempts to gain an advantage over them and focus on getting results because recent form is seeing them let a big chance for the top four slip away in front of their eyes.
In other West Ham news, ‘100%’ – Rio Ferdinand: West Ham ace doesn’t like what is widely said about him