Which Claret & Blue Will Snodgrass Be Representing On July 25th?

West Ham have listed the club's pre-season friendly dates, one of which will include an intriguing match against newly relegated Aston Villa at Wallsall's Bescot Stadium on the evening of July the 25th at 19:45 Hrs.
The intrigue is not that the match is being played at the Bescott Stadium instead of Villa Park, the change of venue is because the Villa Park pitch is being replaced and not that the ground would be half empty as some have cruelly suggested, the reason for the intrigue is which team if any will Robert Snodgrass be playing for?

Having endured a torrid time at the London Stadium while Slaven Billic was the manager, Snodgrass enjoyed a relatively successful season on loan under the guidance of Steve Bruce, unfortunately Villa's defeat in the play off final to Fulham has had a severe impact on their finances as it was their second attempt at gaining promotion to the Premier League and next year their parachute payments reduce massively, the year after they cease entirely. The ugly FFP rules kick in quite savagely for a club the size of Villa, failure to gain promotion will cost them dear as West Ham fans will know only too well, the sight of other clubs circling like buzzards for the team's best players is incredibly frustrating and depressing.

So what will happen with Robert Snodgrass? It is worth remembering that West Ham paid over £10 Million for him at the time from newly relegated Hull City, more than was paid for Michail Antonio from Nottingham Forest! Unfortunatley Scottish International 'Snoddy' comprehensively burnt his bridges with West Ham while on loan at Villa with a series of ill advised media comments, add to those the comments made by Hammers co-owner David Sullivan that his kids 'begged him' not to sign the 30 year old winger and there can only realistically be one outcome. Robert Snodgrass may have interested David Moyes as a player, in fact Moyes actively tried to bring Snodgrass back to the London Stadium only to find that West Ham would have to pay the remaining year's wages of the loan deal in 'compensation'.

David Moyes departed at the end of his temporary contract having kept the club up in the Barclays Premier League, but his brand of dour pragmatic football was never going to inspire or satisfy the Hammers faithful, hence the move for Manuel Pellegrini to 'bring back the good times', can fans seriously believe that Robert Snodgrass will be a Manuel Pellegrini type of player? Without wishing to be unkind to Robert Snodgrass he is the exact antipathy of all things Pellegrini and will surely be moved on during the transfer window, the problems are to where and for how much? Had Villa gained promotion the situation would have been perfect for all parties involved, but now there appear to be few options available so West Ham will have to take a hit on this particularly unsuccessful bit of transfer business which was conducted in the immediate fall out following Dimitri Payet's sudden departure from The London Stadium to Marseille.

Hindsight is a wonderful gift, and with hindsight West Ham United would never have signed Snodgrass and would have been far better off retaining the money paid out until the end of that season, there is a possibility that one of the newly promoted teams might have need of the winger's services or one of the teams aspiring to gain promotion, either way it will cost West Ham money that could have been used so much more effectively. Which ever way it is viewed the Robert Snodgrass transfer to West Ham was a disaster both for the player and the club, and hopefully lessons will have been learned, after alll they are quite expensive lessons! - Ed