No sooner had the dust settled from Hammers narrow defeat by Brentford's Thespians, many of David Moyes' team were jetting off to fulfil their International commitments, which in Michail Antonio's case involves a 10,500 mile flight! Why the club didn't try to dissuade him more vigorously is a mystery, maybe they did try but were rebuffed by his desire to play for the country of his PARENTS birth.
Included in two England squads but never played, Antonio rightly felt underwhelmed when not even being considered for Gareth Southgate s England squad, despite being a truly unique forward with an incredible goals per game scoring ratio.
As a consequence Antonio elected to play for the Reggae boys of Jamaica instead, it was perhaps a knee jerk reaction that he might be regretting because sooner or later the clamour to use him would have been hard for Southgate to ignore, especially if he continues his incredible goal scoring run that he has picked up from last season.
THe silver lining for the club, although not for the players involved, is that neither Jarrod Bowen nor more surprisingly Kurt Zouma have been selected for their respective country's. Zouma has been squeezed out by Didier Deschamps and Bowen not selected from the players in reserve list by Gareth Southgate.
It is to be earnestly hoped that David Moyes has a word in the England manager's shell like regarding Declan Rice, playing the Hammers captain against Andorra would be a totally pointless exercise and one which must not be allowed to occur under any circumstances!
David Moyes' relationship with Jaroslav Šilhavý the Czech Republic manager will also be key to the Irons fortunes, with Couifal, Kral and Soucek ALL featuring for Šilhavý's first team. Both Coufal and even more so Soucek, have looked like players who have given their all for both club and country far too much and are now paying the high price of burn out, physically and mentally. Both look a shadow of their former selves and worryingly are about to embark on a punishing schedule that will only exacerbate their current malaise.
Not much of of a silver lining, but hi ho. - Ed
Comments
Bloody daft...
I get playing for your country is an honour, but at what cost to the club and fans that pays the wages?
Southgate et al should be blooding the young guns not wearing out the 'Big Game' troops...Just a thought !
Rethink
Glad to see that Michale Antonio has sort of withdrawn from the reggae boys 3 matches then coming back to play Everton Genk and spuds he would have surely been injured.
This way he gets10 days off No Brainer to me. Although if he hadn't been playing for Jamaica I think he might have had his 1st England cap by now.