HAMMERS SLAM THE DAW SHUT
West Ham’s European dreams rising high as Craig seals a vital win
CRAIG DAWSON ghosted in like the phantom of the Oprah to become a ratings winner in bubble-blowing heartlands.
Surplus to requirements at relegated Watford, central defender Dawson has taken to his loan spell at West Ham like an eel to jelly.
As the Hammers served up an enjoyable alternative to chat show queen Oprah Winfrey’s prime-time bonfire of a monarchy on another channel, Dawson continued his remarkable transformation from Fred Karno to Bobby Moore.
And a season which began with protests against the Two Daves and Baroness Karren Brady outside the VIP entrance could yet end in the Champions League. One man’s pie and in cor blimey country is another man’s tarte et puree across the Channel, but this is the best West Ham team since Frank McAvennie and Tony Cottee were at large 35 years ago. But Leeds have been a breath of fresh air at the top table. Games involving Marcelo Bielsa’s hipsters have produced more goals than any other Premier League club this season.
And it is hard to chastise them for leaving the back gate open and letting intruders abscond with a tray of sandwiches when they come barging through the front door with a picnic hamper so often.
In the opening 15 minutes here, Lady Luck was a cockney because fortune wasn’t always hiding from the Hammers – it was holding their like fugitive royals. Leeds could have scored twice in the opening seven minutes, but Tyler Roberts’ smart finish was scrubbed out by our old friend VAR because Helder Costa, who supplied the cross, was fractionally offside.
Clear and obvious? Let’s say it again, in case the jobsworths haven’t been paying attention at the back of class: If a bloke in a bunker needs to draw lines across the pitch to prove half a player’s kneemash cap is ‘offside’, we’re all going to hell in a handcart.
Somewhere between Stockley Park and paradise, there is a landfill site with this technological scourge buried deep beneath your household waste.
And the tiniest fractions conspired against Leeds again when Patrick Bamford turned Raphinha’s low cross past Lukasz Fabianski, only for the Brazilian to be flagged for cutting the ball back millimetres beyond the dead-ball line.
But this is not the first time they have been vulnerable on the counter-attack and from set-pieces, and Bielsa knew it was going to be another long night in the capital when West Ham’s first meaninghands ful excursion into the visitors’ box proved fruitful.
England discard Jesse Lingard was tripped by Luke Ayling and potted the rebound when Illan Meslier parried his spot-kick.
And seven minutes later, unmarked Dawson met Aaron Cresswell’s corner with a stooping header at the far post to double the Irons’ advantage.
Dawson hit the post with another header in first-half stoppage time, Pablo Fornals rattled the bar from distance and West Ham looked dangerous every time they broke forward.
But Leeds never threw in the towel, Bamford shovelling one yawning chance wide and spooning a sitter over the top from eight yards.
Action man Dawson cleared off the line to preserve the Hammers’ clean sheet late on.
ON April 10, 1970, the music world was rocked to its core when Liverpool’s Fab Four split up.
The Beatles, the greatest band there has ever been, had left the stage.
On April 10, 2021, Liverpool’s current Fab Three face Aston Villa at Anfield, and I’m beginning to wonder if that’s when we’ll start to see the death rattle of another iconic Scouse creation.
Mo Salah, Bobby Firmino and Sadio Mane have made wonderful music at Anfield.
But rumours of Salah wanting out and talk of his relationship with Mane have been around for a while now.
And while I’ve said before that I thought it could be time for the Egyptian King and Liverpool to part company at the end of this season, I’d go even further now and suggest moving on the entire Holy
Trinity in one go. The role Firmino has played in Liverpool’s success has been exceptional, but I’m sure you could find another hardworking line-leader who’d get 15 goals a season.
But the line between playing nicely together and hostility, jealousy and greed is such a fine one that, if the right money came in and I could get the players I wanted, I’d sanction deals for the lot of them.
I’ll put an asterisk by Mane’s name because, if it was a case of selling two of the three, he’d be the one I’d keep.
But Sir Alex Ferguson was very good at knowing when even his best players needed to be sold and, if I were Liverpool’s transfer guru, Michael Edwards, I’d be heading to Boston with Jurgen Klopp as soon as I could and selling that as the best way forward to John Henry and co.
Edwards would get in excess of £200million for the trio, and more if he let Xherdan Shaqiri and Divock Origi go as well.
And with that sort of money, I’d be looking at Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland for starters, with Jack Grealish brought in to play on his left and Barcelona’s Ansu Fati to his right.
If Liverpool are serious about competing for the title in two of the next three seasons – even two in five – they have to be moving for Haaland, because I guarantee Manchester City, Manchester United and maybe Chelsea will be as well.
Villa have progressed nicely, but there are no guarantees they will finish in the top 10, and Grealish will want to challenge for trophies at some point. Then there’s the fact Barca are skint and would have to listen to a good offer for Fati.
Then I’d look to bring in the extremely exciting Myron Boadu from AZ Alkmaar to fill the Origi role and, with Diogo Jota already there, I’d be salivating at what that group could do.
I know people will say, ‘That’s just a fantasy list, Stan’, but the last two times Liverpool have thought and spent big – bringing in Alisson and Virgil van Dijk – they have reaped the rewards.
My fear is that Fenway will say Salah, Mane and Firmino just need a good break and that they will come back firing.
But I hope Liverpool are bold and brave and look to the future, rather than holding on to a threesome who mentally may well already have moved on.
I would sanction deals for all three of them for the right money