Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Dubai training was a washout
ROBERT Snodgrass felt right at home on West Ham’s recent trip to Dubai — because the weather was as bad as in his native Glasgow.
Hammers boss Slaven Bilic took advantage of a fixture-free weekend last month to jet off with his squad to seek out some sunshine.
Ahead of tonight’s game when runaway Premier League leaders Chelsea visit the London Stadium, West Ham winger Snodgrass, a £10.2 million January signing from Hull, revealed the so-called warm-weather training was a washout due to the constant rain.
“To be honest with you, the weather was worse than Scotland,” he said. “It was raining a lot, and cold. It felt pretty much like I was back home in Glasgow.
“So the lads were gutted. They had some swimming shorts for sitting around the pool after training but there was none of that. Absolutely none.
“Some of the lads had jackets and hats on, it was unbelievable — something I had never seen in Dubai before. I still had to use factor 50, mind.
“The only disappointing thing was that we thought it was going to be hotweather training but it was totally different.”
Snodgrass is now hoping to cut Chelsea down to size tonight.
“We have got players here that can cause any team problems,” he said.
“But it is the teams in the top six that we have not picked up a lot of points against this year, so we need to start tonight against Chelsea.”