Monday, June 25

Diamanti lights

It's always a good bet that any West Ham reject playing against England will look like a world-beater. Substitute Allesandro Diamanti had a great game against Roy Hodgson's men last night, curling in crosses, hitting the post and scoring the wining goal in the penalty shoot-out. Always thought he had too much class to be discarded by the club. Yes, he drifted out of games, but as we saw with a superb free-kick against Birmingham and a brilliant display in the 2-2 home draw worth Arsenal under Zola he had fantastic skill and scored eight goals, four of them penalties, in 2009-10. And he could take corners… Sullivan seemed to take against him simply because we sold James Collins to get him, and then Avram Grant immediately sold him. Had we retained Diamanti I don't think we'd have been relegated. Even as an impact substitute he could have altered games. And now he stands on the verge of the Euro Final…

8 comments:

Phil Nichols said...

I think you're over egging it a bit Pete to say we wouldnt have been relagated with Diamante. He had ability, but it always seemed to me he charged around like a headless chicken, often to little or no effect. As for anyone buying Mido, surely this is the momenmt when football imploded in on itself. Someone should call the South Yorks Constabulary to report this crime in progress.....

Peter Martin said...

Over all i felt Diamante was a Luxury player. Could be good but often went missing and had a big ego, not a team player. We had Ba in the season we went down and he is a far better player and even he could not keep us up so i don't think Diamante would.

Anonymous said...

Not so sure he was a "West Ham reject" anyway, maybe you've been listening to too much crap TV commentary. He wanted to go back to Italy from what I remember. Personally thought he was a great player and good to see he came back to demonstrate that last night

hammer j said...

I thought diamanti was a great player with a wond of a left foot ! We should of done everything in our power to keep him , avram grant was not the best judge of talent !

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Pete May said...

Seems to have sparked a big debate... Maybe he looks better with the gift of hindsight, but a great left foot even if he did shoot 20 times a match. I think he might have turned some games under Grant just through taking a decent corner of scoring the odd free kick. Good point about Mido Phil, I'll alert the South Yorks Constabulary immediately... might even be a reward.

matt said...

Has anyone's career blossomed so unexpectedly as Diamanti's? He scuffed around Italy's lower leagues for a decade, and at 26 was still in Serie B. He won his first cap in a friendly in November 2010, but was substituted at half-time, and not picked again until the Euros, and was trusted with the crucial fifth penalty that saw Italy into the semi-finals. He has also allowed Italian fans to use the sort of pun even Pete May would reject (Happy Diamanti Jubilee)....

PS, Mido is still only 29, apparently. Mind you, that could be stone rather than his age....

Pete May said...

Yes, the Diamanti geezer is a strange case. But maybe his ego helps - he looked like he thought he was on the right stage against England. Nearly every ex-WHU player's career blossoms by some immutable law - maybe Mido will shed five stone and win the World Cup for Egypt...