Lionel-More Flair Than Blair?

To those of a certain age in the UK the name Lionel was synonymous with light entertainment in the form of the multi talented and thoroughly nice guy Lionel Blair, his soft shoe shuffle and treacly tones entertained the masses on Saturday nights during an era when there were only four TV channels to view in total! How have things have changed?

Lionel Scaloni had been retired for a year and was feeling an emptiness inside that was difficult to ignore, the former West Ham United full back missed football so much that he was willing to ring Son Caliu, the amateur club next to his home on the island of Mallorca to say he was available to work with their kids if they had a position for him. So he did, back in 2016. It was then, after a training session he heard the news Lionel Messi had decided to quit playing for Argentina. He couldn't believe it and decided to tweet a picture of his former team-mate in that year's Copa America final with a desperate message."This image says it all… Don't go, Lio," he wrote.

Six years on from making that fateful decision, alongside Lionel Messi Lionel Scaloni was proudly able to hold aloft football's pinnacle of ultimate success, the FIFA World Cup. The victory sent one nation into a celebration that will last for days to come, whereas the Argentine victory plunged the defeated finalists France into an entirely different mind set.

Perhaps Oliver Giroud might think before he opens his mouth next time because we KNOW as a fact that Scaloni took a leaf out of his old manager Alan Pardew's book by pinning ALL the negative comments the French had been making to the Press about the Argentine players ahead of the final, especially Lionel Messi! Giroud's it's going to get Messi quote will come back to haunt him repeatedly although he wasn't the only guilty party.

At the end of the day it WAS Messi, not Les Bleues who triumphed! Guided all the way by Lionel Scaloni a manager the players would clearly run through fire for the thrilling final will have also brought back a few dark memories for Hammers fans, so we though we would put the matter straight. Signed as a replacement for the outgoing fan's favourite Tommy Repka, Scaloni achieved notoriety during the ill fated 2006 FA Cup final against Liverpool when with Hammers leading 3-2 and only two minutes remaining of normal time he was hoodwinked by Liverpool's Djibril Cissé into putting the ball into touch believing the Frenchman to be badly injured, he wasn't!

The ball was returned to the field of play by an extremely enthusiatic ball boy so quickly that Scaloni along with the rest of the defence was caught out of position, as the ball came to him he 'shanked' it whereupon it landed right in the path of Steven Gerrard who wellied his 'wonder' goal t take the game to extra time which the Scousers undeservedly won following a penalty shoot out!

It WASN'T Scaloni's fault, rather the cheating diving Cisse's influence on the officials! The bad blood ran so deep that when Cisse was offered as a player to West Ham his agent was advised his client risked life and limb if he ever turned up at the club! So celebrate the Argentine victory over France, not just for Scaloni, but for the Karma delivered to the French in the hope that Cisse was watching on , and that it left HIM broken hearted! - LN