Sam Allardyce slams Michail Antonio after West Ham beat West Brom 3-1
Sam Allardyce launched a scathing attack on Michail Antonio after West Ham won 3-1 against West Brom at The Hawthorns on Wednesday night.
The Irons picked up a crucial three points on the road against a stubborn Baggies side who made life extremely difficult for the visitors, opening the scoring through Matheus Pereira before goals from Tomas Soucek, Angelo Ogbonna and Antonio snatched the game away from the relegated outfit.
It was a lively affair on the pitch and it proved so away from it as well after ex-Irons boss Allardyce took aim at Antonio in his post-match interview with Sky Sports [19/05/21], posted by their Twitter profile.
He said: “Unlike Michail Antonio’s statement that I heard just before he came out here saying we’ve got big men that just played in the channel, he just insulted me and my team.
“I know he’s a nice lad but it was disgusting what he said, so I think he needs to go back and watch the game and see how we really played.
“Our front two are five foot ten inches and five foot nine inches, so I don’t know what big men he saw running in the channel.”
Allardyce added: “Just like Michail Antonio just said ‘it’s Sam we’re long ball, it’s Sam and the way they play’, it’s a load of [expletive] and always has been a load of [expletive] because I’ve never played the same way at any football club I’ve been at.
“If you thought that was long ball today then somebody is deluded.”
Bitter
Maybe Antonio’s words weren’t entirely factual, but this is just a case of pure sour grapes from Big Sam.
He clearly wanted to get one over his old club and supporters on Wednesday, a fanbase who never really grew to love him despite his promotion success and stabilising us as a Premier League side again.
His style of play was at odds with what we wanted to see in East London and it’s no surprise that he has since gone on to adopt the role of relegation battler in his subsequent jobs.
Once again his unique brand of football was on display as the Irons strode into the West Midlands to claim a crucial victory in our quest for European football next season.
West Brom may not have had big strikers to lump the ball up to but they were still direct and played the percentages, hoping for corners to be able to send their towering defenders forward for.
It was a pretty unwarranted attack on Antonio from Big Sam at the end and smacked of a desperate manager who is finding it difficult to deal with a Premier League relegation on his CV.
In other West Ham news, ‘Terrific’ – BBC pair blown away by ‘Fabulous’ Irons star v West Brom.
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