Each day brings more and more nails to hammer into the coffins of the West Ham careers of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano and today is no exception with their national coach Alfio Basile telling the two players to get out of the club as soon as they possibly can.

Basile, who took over from Jose Pekerman as Argentina coach following the World Cup, has even went so far as to advise Mascherano to move to Juventus even if they are in Serie B as it would still be a step up from playing for West Ham United.

The former Boca Juniors coach says that both Tevez and Mascherano look “half-hearted and I’m really worried. They play as if they’re unenthusiastic. I hope both of them leave that club as soon as possible.”

With the great West Ham Argentina Experiment dying swiftly on it’s arse, just who is to blame for the greatest coup of recent years turning to complete farce after only half a dozen games?

Alan Pardew may have his problems with the board and the proposed MSI takeover but I really doubt that he had either of these two players on his summer transfer list in the first place. They were an opportunistic purchase by a board who saw ?? signs and big name superstars selling shirts, tickets and merchandise without a thought for how they would integrate at all with the current team setup.

MSI, in their unquenchable desire to pimp their players to the big spenders, didn’t consider properly the time and patience it would take to integrate two young South Americans int othe English game especially when they had a poor command of the language and no desire whatsoever to fight for the West Ham cause. The shop window is only a good reason if you can actually put on a good display once you are in there and these two really never stood a chance unless they adapted perfectly from the first time they pulled on a West Ham jersey.

Neither player comes out of this with any dignity either. Tevez seems to have been causing problems since he stepped off the plane with rows over the size of the accommodation given to him and his extended family and a penchant for the bright lights of London’s big city nightlife proving to be a severe cause for concern. Basically neither player joined with the right intentions and mindset and that was always a recipe for disaster.

The press built both of them up to be the all conquering Argentinian World Cup stars that would take the Premiership by storm, completely failing to understand the potential problems they could face in assimilating into the British culture and into British football and are now all too quick to write the pair off altogether after only six games.

Whoever is to blame it all adds up to a stinking mess for the people who have to solve the problems the signings have caused, namely Alan Pardew and the rest of the West Ham squad. Bobby Zamora has been electric this season in front of goal and shows what a player of average ability can do in the right system when he has the mindset of playing for the team and doing his job effectively.

The best thing West Ham could do is get their lawyers to scour the Argie contracts for any loopholes which would allow them to cancel them and recoup some of their money, if they get agreement with MSI who can then tout the two as free agents to other clubs before January that is. Write this whole nasty charade off to experience and let it stand as a beacon to other clubs who may get swayed into ditching their well thought out plans for a one-off shot at securing a little piece of footballing glamour at all costs.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 6th, 2006 at 8:38 am and is filed under Football News, West Ham United. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.