Jack Holmes was a member of the Snack Media Academy before becoming an evergreen writer and then opinions writer with Football FanCast. Jack has previously written for the Liverpool Echo and Mersey Sports Live and currently writes for AFTV.
Jack completed a History and International Relations undergraduate degree at Exeter University in 2021 before undertaking a Masters in Sports Journalism at Liverpool John Moores University a year later. Jack is a football fanatic and a keen fan of Cricket and Formula 1. A lifelong fan of Arsenal, jack specialises in football writing.
They haven’t always brought success, but West Ham United has had some incredible players represent them over the years.
For example, while it was short and sweet, Dimitri Payet’s time in the Premier League was incredible.
The Frenchman could do things with a ball that most players could only dream of, and it was easy to see glimpses of the sensational Paolo Di Canio in him.
The Italian was a livewire, but one of the most technically gifted players to don the famous claret and blue. Nuno Espírito Santo has a player with shades of him in his game, but said player is becoming an issue and should probably be sold at the end of the season.
Di Canio’s West Ham career
West Ham signed Di Canio from Sheffield Wednesday in January 1999, and right from the off, there was controversy.
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Fans and pundits alike questioned the club’s decision to spend £1.5m on a player with a reputation as a troublemaker and, at the time, serving an 11-match ban for pushing a referee.
However, then-manager Harry Redknapp brushed aside any criticism of the move, telling the press that he was a player who “can do things with the ball that people can only dream of.”
The veteran coach would be quickly proven correct in this assessment, as he ended that campaign with five goal involvements in just 13 appearances for the Hammers and was named OPTA player of the season.
Moreover, just over a year later, he scored that famous strike against Wimbledon that was rightly later named the Premier League’s goal of the decade.
This ability to do anything he wanted with the ball, and his old-school passionate approach, quickly made him a fan favourite at Upton Park, and his decision to stop the game when Everton keeper Paul Gerrard was injured in December 2000, despite having a clear goalscoring opportunity, earned him fans across the Premier League.
However, as gifted and entertaining as the Italian was, his habit of causing problems never went away, and in 2003 he had a public falling out with then-manager Glenn Roeder, which saw him dropped from the team for some time.
At the end of the 02/03 season, despite making it clear he wanted to remain, West Ham refused to offer Di Canio another contract, a decision many attribute to his dispute with the manager.
In all, the Rome-born star was a truly sensational footballer, but his temperament eventually saw the club get rid of him, and the same thing might now need to happen with someone in Nuno’s squad.
Nuno’s new Di Canio he should sell
There are a few West Ham players who should be sold in January, or at the end of the season, such as Niclas Füllkrug, Mads Hermansen and probably Max Kilman.
However, the only player who should be moved on who can even remotely be compared to Di Canio is Lucas Paqueta.
Now, before addressing the reasons the club should cash in on him, what makes the Brazilian similar to the Italian?
Well, first and foremost, he too, is capable of making something out of nothing, or as former coach Mark Warburton put it last year, he “sees things that you just don’t see. You look at the pass for the winning goal in the European final.”
That ability was on show again in the game against Newcastle United this season, when he smashed the ball into the net from some distance out.
Moreover, as Warburton puts it, the former Lyon ace is a “mercurial” talent in the sense that he can glide past opposition defenders if he wants, or pass them out of the game when on song.
With that said, then, why on earth should the club sell him?
Well, the first reason is that, like Di Canio at his worst, he can have a bad temperament.
This was on full show against Liverpool at the weekend, when he received a second yellow card for dissent, which is a truly petulant reason to be sent off.
The second reason he should be moved on is that while he can be an exceptional player on his day, he also isn’t irreplaceable.
For example, he has scored only four goals this season, three of which have come in the Premier League, and last season he ended the campaign with a paltry tally of five goals in 36 games.
Ultimately, Paqueta is a great player, but with his contract running out in less than two years, his slightly underwhelming output and the fact that he can do things as silly as be sent off for dissent, West Ham may be wise to move him on at the end of the season.
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