West Ham United controversy as Simon Jordan hits out at Michail Antonio
TalkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan has hit out at West Ham United striker Michail Antonio live on air after what he revealed about Gianluca Scamacca in a controversial interview.
The London Stadium fan-favourite delivered a controversial assessment of his teammate revealing the reasons why he’s struggled since his £35m move from Sassuolo last summer.
Speaking on the Filthy Fellas podcast [1 June], Antonio questioned Scamacca’s suitability to David Moyes‘ style of play at West Ham – seeming to suggest his lack of physicality and inability to “feed off scraps” ultimately led to his demise.
And Jordan, speaking live on talkSPORT [7 June: 6m:25sec] did not hold back on his criticism of the West Ham United forward.
He said: “There’s plenty of players that get signed for football clubs that don’t necessarily hit the ground running.
“What I do think is, it’s just not necessary for Antonio to be speaking in that fashion, there’s no benefit to it, it’s only going to be controversy coming out of it.
“Whether there’s rancour between him and that player because maybe he feels that the player has got more focus on him than Antonio should have got, I don’t know.
“I don’t know what it is. David Moyes will have dealt with it, be under no illusion, Moyes will have a media face saying, I’ve got no issue with Antonio’s opinion.
“In private, he will have said shut your trap and keep your opinions to yourself!”
Bad example
It’s so unheard of to see a football player come out to the public and deliver a brutal assessment of a teammate given the struggles he’s faced alongside him at the club.
What Antonio has done has totally set a bad example to young viewers, especially as he’s supposed to be on Moyes’ leaders at the club, and also supposed to be lending a hand to Scamacca in his first taste of English football.
To go behind his back and say what he did is simply not right, and certainly will have angered Moyes behind closed doors, especially with a Europa Conference League final coming up.
What do Antonio’s comments say about the environment in the West Ham United dressing room?
It’s something that could have a damaging domino effect on any young player wishing to make the grade at the London Stadium, knowing that a leader at the club could be commenting on them to the public.
Let’s hope that isn’t the case.