‘As good as any confession’ – Martin Samuel blasts Big Sam over ‘careless’ West Brom controversy
West Brom are under investigation from the Premier League over the Robert Snodgrass deal and Daily Mail columnist Martin Samuel has given his thoughts on the matter.
The journalist pointed the finger at Sam Allardyce for his role in revealing that there was an agreement put in place by the clubs involved.
His article looked back on similar cases, noting it is not the first time David Moyes has been involved in such an agreement.
Samuel also found that the Premier League do not tend to take action over such discretions, writing: “Gentlemen’s agreements would still appear to be going strong with no one greatly interested until Big Sam opened his big mouth and made the Premier League look foolish.
“West Ham will no doubt argue that without the agreement they would simply have delayed Snodgrass’s transfer until January 20, to prevent potential embarrassment, so the player would not have faced them anyway.
“The pressure, they could claim, came from West Brom to do the deal quickly with the offer of a side arrangement. Which makes Allardyce’s careless words all the more mystifying.
“Allardyce’s words were as good as any confession.”
Time to move on
Allardyce may have made an error of judgement after the West Ham match on Tuesday but Samuel’s assessment of his actions is harsh to say the least.
As he put it himself, such agreements are rarely taken seriously.
That is underlined by the fact the likely outcome of the investigation will be a warning or a small fine.
We also find it strange that Samuel believes Albion pushed for such an arrangement, as Snodgrass’ exclusion on Tuesday only benefitted West Ham.
The Scot had been a key performer in our huge win against Wolves last weekend, and Allardyce was likely annoyed at him being unavailable, hence his outburst after the game.
There has been a lot of bluster over this matter, in our opinion, particularly as there was not much wrongdoing on our part.
Hopefully this doesn’t distract Big Sam or deter clubs from conducting business with Albion this month, as failing to make more additions could really threaten our survival chances.
In other West Brom news, a reliable journalist details significant West Brom-Choudhury transfer update.