David Sullivan or Karren Brady get on the phone to Man City because West Ham must terminate Kalvin Phillips’ loan deal without delay. West Ham’s unacceptable 5-2 defeat at Crystal Palace has killed any hopes of qualifying for Europe in a season where it is wide open.
But the season really ended for the Hammers up at Newcastle last month. On 69 minutes of that game to be precise when David Moyes substituted Michail Antonio for Kalvin Phillips at 3-1 up.
Against a severely patched up Newcastle team, who lost several more players mid-game due to injury, Phillips infuriated supporters by literally strolling around the pitch as West Ham surrendered the lead to lose 4-3.
After the game Phillips was caught on camera swearing at a West Ham fan who called him ‘useless’.
The Newcastle debacle followed a string of disastrous early performances from the Man City loan man in which he gave the ball away leading to goals before a sending off in defeat at Forest.
It has become abundantly clear why Manchester City were so keen to offload Phillips. And why the former England mainstay has barely kicked a ball for Man City since joining them from Leeds just under two years ago.
We all know the lines of communication between West Ham and Manchester City are well established. Man City contacted the Hammers to try and sign both Declan Rice and Lucas Paqueta last summer.
Vice-chair Karren Brady has also confirmed an agreement was in place for West Ham to sign Cole Palmer from the champions until Chelsea swooped.
Well West Ham must call Man City and terminate the Phillips loan now after what the flop did at end of the Palace mauling.
The Phillips deal has cost West Ham around £4m and he picks up £150k per week. Good money if you can get it hey?
Loan deals are always liable to fail unless they are well thought out and planned with an end goal in mind
The last position the Hammers needed to strengthen in January was central midfield. But Moyes went ahead and did it anyway.
West Ham’s worst since Roberto?
Phillips has gone from not getting a sniff at Man City to the same situation at West Ham.
I actually defended Phillips after his middle finger gesture to that fan after Newcastle. But what I did say is he must respond in the right way on the pitch when he next got the opportunity
That came in the 75th minute at Crystal Palace with West Ham losing 5-1. As bad as the Man City flop has been thus far even he could not do any worse than the garbage served up in the preceding 74 minutes.
He huffed and puffed when he came on, gave the ball away a few times and played a nice ball over the top to set up Maxwel Cornet for a chance which was pulled back for offside.
It was what he did after the final whistle which will infuriate Hammers fans who stuck behind the team to the end. While most of West Ham’s crestfallen players made their way over to the away end with hands raised in apology, Phillips was seen laughing and joking with Eberechi Eze on the pitch for near on five minutes.
Even if he is on loan from Man City and clearly won’t be staying, Phillips could at least pretend he gives two hoots about West Ham.
This wasn’t an exchange of pleasantries and a little smile between two England teammates.Phillips was full on laughing and joking with Eze and clearly found something very funny.
Eze had plenty to be happy about of course. The former Moyes target absolutely wiped the floor with West Ham.
But after his previous poor performances, walking around the pitch during that dismal Newcastle defeat, swearing at a fan and now this then the Hammers should just send him back to Manchester.
Even if they have to pick up the next month of his wages as per their agreement with Man City, we don’t need any freeloaders laughing in our faces as the season ends in a damp squib.
