Who Will Be Dropped First: Calleri or Bilic?

We at Brace the Hammer have been very supportive of Slaven Bilic. We believe he is a West Ham United man through and through, and that he bleeds Claret & Blue. If you saw his reaction after the win against Swansea City, it’s clear that he cares about the club, and it’s clear as day that his players love him. He played in east London in the ‘90s and stuck it out through all the bad days with the team, even though, yeah, he did eventually leave for Everton.

All that to say, his decision to axe Ashley Fletcher from the first team is not a good one. To make it more questionable, Slaven continues to play Jonathan Calleri, who has been bad, to say the least. To say the most, Calleri has adopted the demeanor of a stray paper bag that’s landed on the pitch—flitting about here and there, occasionally getting in the way of players, but ultimately making no difference. To say the middlest, Calleri has been useless garbage. However you slice it, Calleri has not been good for the Hammers, and the decision to even have him on the bench over a bright, young talent like Ashley Fletcher has left a lot of fans irate. It’s not that Calleri isn’t a bright, young talent in his own right, it’s just that he couldn’t score a goal if his life depended on it.

Sure, we’re being a bit harsh, but Calleri has done almost literally nothing for West Ham, save a lucky deflection in a 3-1 win over Middlesbrough. It’s admirable how hard the 23-year-old works, but if his hard work isn’t paying off, maybe it means that he’s not cut out for the Premier League. That, or his confidence is simply shot in front of goal—no pun intended. Either way, Calleri should be dropped from the team for the sole reason that he isn’t reliable. Seems that Slaven sees things differently, though.

Here’s that pesky “but he works hard” argument again:

http://whoscored.com

According to Who Scored, Calleri isn’t such a bad player, he just lacks discipline. But, in reality, it seems that Calleri’s strengths and weaknesses have traded places. The only Calleri we’ve witnessed at West Ham is one that’s a hard worker and is very disciplined on the pitch, but one who can’t finish the doggone ball. There’s nothing else to say about it. He either gets busy scoring, or he gets busy leaving. Doesn’t look like the former is going to happen anytime soon, so it’s the latter for the Argentine. Sayonara, Calleri. Good riddance.