Phil Jagielka explains decision to turn down West Ham
Sheffield United and former Everton defender Phil Jagielka has explained his decision to snub West Ham in 2007.
After impressing as a youngster for the Blades, there were a number of offers on the table for his services.
The Hammers were also keen on signing the player, but he opted against moving to East London, and instead joined Everton where he spent 12 years.
In 2019, after a successful decade at Goodison Park, he returned back to Sheffield United for their first season back in the Premier League.
This season, despite the Blades’ relegation, Jagielka has done well – earning the praise of former manager Chris Wilder who referred to him as ‘brilliant’. [Yorkshire Examiner]
Explaining his decision to join Everton and snub the West Ham offer, Jagielka said on the Super Six Podcast, “Well West Ham, I think you’d understand why I couldn’t do the West Ham one! Obviously, there was the Carlos Tevez and Mascherano ordeal. Third-party ownership, obviously they [the Premier League] were umm-ing and ahh-ing about points deductions.”
“But there was a bitter taste in your mouth. I wouldn’t say they broke the rules, but they bent the rules quite a lot. They didn’t own two of the players, the agent owned them and struck a deal with West Ham.
“They got away with it, ended up going down on goal difference. I reported back on the first day of pre-season and I got a phone call from Alan Curbishley.
“He was saying he’d love to have me there but probably understood if I couldn’t! I was captain of the club at the time, I’d come through the youth, I’d have been spitting in Sheffield United faces if I’d have gone to West Ham.”
What could have been
Jagielka went on to become a superb centre-back at Everton, and would it not have been for the club rivalry and maybe the talks of point deductions, he very well could’ve been a long-serving member of our defence.
However, who knows how well some of our fans would’ve received him, so it’s probably in everyone’s best interests that the move did not materialise.
We have certainly been through a lot of ups and downs in the past decade and only recently have things started picking up.
Having finished in this position, it’s important we build on it this summer rather than treat it as a one-off. This is the best time to be at West Ham Football Club and who knows what we’re capable of achieving with proper recruitment.
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