Michail Antonio now set for West Ham United exit after sack decision on David Moyes
West Ham United has enjoyed a stellar few seasons with David Moyes but doubts have remained about whether or not he will be staying as manager next season.
Moyes, 60, won the first piece of major silverware in his career last week when the Irons won the Europa Conference League final over Fiorentina in Prague, permanently etching himself into the East London club’s history.
Before that achievement, Moyes returned to the London Stadium to turn around a relegation battle, win a record Premier League points haul, led the Hammers to back-to-back campaigns in Europe and reached a Europa League semi-final.
There’s no doubt he’s a West Ham United legend and it seems as though he could be staying on with a decision made to not sack him despite pressure this season.
Despite the club’s European exploits, fans were left calling for Moyes’ head earlier in the campaign when West Ham’s Premier League status came under threat.
Fortunately, David Sullivan and co stuck by the Scotsman to great effect.
ESPN reported on 12 June that Moyes will remain as the club’s manager for next season after his success in the Conference League.
While that’s great news, what does it mean for the squad? And what does it mean, in particular, for Michail Antonio?
It’s fair to say that Antonio, 33, lost his shine a bit this season.
He scored just five Premier League goals in 33 games. In the season before he scored 10 in 36, the season before that 10 in 26 and the season before that 10 in 24.
He’s gone downhill, he’ll probably admit that himself. But while you can understand why he wouldn’t be performing as well on the pitch, you cannot say the same about his professionalism off it.
Antonio’s podcasting and YouTube appearances have gotten him into hot water.
Speaking on the Filfthy Fellas YouTube Channel on 31 May, Antonio seemed to openly criticise struggling striker teammate Gianluca Scamacca.
As quoted by talkSPORT, Antonio said: “He is actually quality, he is a quality player.
“The problem is, he can not play the way the manager wants to play.
“He needs a different type of manager who will let him play with players to come off him and stuff like that.
“You see that, the ball comes to him, and it sticks.
“But with David Moyes, you have to feed off scraps, be a fighter… and he’s not that.”
Scamacca has obviously found life in English football difficult after being signed from Sassuolo for £35.5million last year [Sky Sports].
And while Antonio’s honesty is refreshing, talking down one of your teammates is a bad look.
It happened in the build-up to the Conference League win over Fiorentina, which led to Moyes being asked about Antonio’s off-field antics in the pre-match press conference.
As quoted by football.london on 2 June, Moyes had to make it clear he had no issues with Scamacca – something we doubt Moyes wanted to do so close to the biggest game of his career – and then had to stay tight-lipped about Antonio.
“Micky has his own opinions but we’re not getting into that,” said the Irons boss.
Antonio’s contract is up next summer and The Guardian (2 June) claims that he could push to leave the London Stadium in this summer transfer window.
It may be a case of Antonio being pushed out, rather than him doing it himself if it’s true that Moyes is staying after such a poor season and such a poor decision to talk about a struggling teammate.,