Spitting games

Diouf. Dioufy. Dioufy-wioufy. Call him what you want, Sam - El-Hadj Diouf is still the most hated player in British football. Rarely are West Ham fans united by a common view. The proposed Stratford move is testament to that. But the potential signing of the Senegalese appears to have broken the mould.

“Knowing someone like Dioufy, I just have to let him get fit and see if he looks in good condition when he trains with us,” said Allardyce . “There is something missing from our squad and Diouf could be that missing link.”

Going in to this weekend’s games, only two teams had scored more than West Ham, so that missing link does not appear to be goals. Indeed, Dioufy’s goalscoring record is about as impressive as that of Titi Camara, another Liverpool flop inflicted on West Ham with dire consequences.

At Liverpool he scored once in every 13 games, at Bolton (excluding his loan spell) once every 7 games, at both Blackburn and Rangers once every 15 games. At Sunderland, he failed to score in 14 games before the Mackems gave up on him. The only time he has ever been prolific was during his 27-game loan spell at Bolton, where he was effectively playing for a permanent contract. That tells you a lot about his motivation.

So what else does he bring to the table? Dioufy apologists (which so far as I know number Mrs Diouf and Sam Allardyce) would argue that defences hate to play against him. His cynical gamesmanship, such as blocking goalkeepers from set pieces, may infuriate opposition fans, but that it does so, is perhaps testament to its effectiveness.

Such bending of the rules has become ever more prevalent during the ten years that he has plied his trade in Blighty. In this respect, Kevin Nolan is hardly an angel. Few objections were raised at his arrival in east London (except perhaps from his wife). But for Diouf, the mud has stuck.

Allardyce sees his short-term remit in straightforward terms: to get West Ham promoted. In his mind, it is illogical to jeopardise this by rejecting a player that he believes to be “quality”, just because people don’t like him as a person. And let’s face it, while his “quality” is very much up for debate, this is not what West Ham fans are up in arms about. It is the fact that Diouf has a history of spitting at players and supporters. Including those of West Ham.

In 2002, he was accused of spitting at West Ham fans while warming up as a substitute for Liverpool during a game at Anfield. Although Merseyside Police found no evidence that an offence had been committed, the incident was deemed serious enough for Liverpool to issue an apology to West Ham. This was the start of things to come.

In 2003, he was fined two weeks’ wages and banned for two games for spitting at Celtic fans. He also pled guilty to a charge of assault. In 2004, he was again charged by police for spitting at an 11-year-old Middlesbrough fan. Just weeks later, he spat at Portsmouth player, Arjan de Zeeuw. In addition, there have been allegations of telling an Everton ballboy to “fuck off, white boy”, as well as taunting QPR’s Jamie Mackie, as he lay on the pitch with a broken leg.

Hammers fans have reacted with fury to the idea that this behaviour could soon be played out at Upton Park. Some of the responses, as is the wont of a minority of West Ham fans, have been needlessly over the top. It is not necessary to cite Bobby Moore, in order to argue persuasively that Diouf should not be seen in claret and blue.

West Ham do not possess a moral superiority lacking in other clubs. 95% of football fans would not want Diouf anywhere near their club. Allardyce, however, is banking on the fickleness of the typical football fan. He may be in for a shock. Adebayor-loving Tottenham Hotspur we are not.

“As most of the fans have taken to him everywhere he’s been, [West Ham fans will] love him”, he said. Did Blackburn fans love him? Liverpool and Sunderland fans unquestionably did not. At Bolton, the fans did take to him. It is the assumption that West Ham and Bolton fans are no different, that is Allardyce’s blindspot.

Given Bolton’s limited resources and fanbase, merely by being above the Premier League relegation scrap - let alone in the Europa League - they have been punching above their weight. It is for this reason that their supporters, like Stoke fans, do not simply tolerate the ugly side of football; they embrace it. To the tune of Tony Christie’s ‘Amarillo’ (such are the cultural reference points of Bolton fans) their supporters would sing, “El-Hadj Diouf will spit on you”. Would that happen at Upton Park? Not in a month of Europa League-necessitated Sundays.

It says a lot about Allardyce’s mindset that he is happy to endure the inevitable backlash over a player who in reality is anything but quality. Despite bemoaning the rough treatment he received at the hands of Newcastle and their fans, he refuses to take any lessons from the experience. Like the Geordies, West Ham fans see the game as being about more than just the three points. By ignoring this fact, Allardyce is leaving himself little slack, should results start to take a turn for the worse.

He is clearly banking on West Ham fans rallying behind Dioufy once they come up against opposition fans taunting a player in claret and blue. Indeed, West Ham fans are not immune to backing a bad boy, Craig Bellamy and Lee Bowyer being more recent examples. If he turns in a few good performances and bags some important goals, the fans may learn to tolerate him. That is a big if, and it is very much a best-case scenario.

Even more baffling, is that he would choose to do this at a time when we are spolit for attacking options. John Carew and Sam Baldock are Sam’s own signings and have made promising starts. Frederic Piquionne and Carlton Cole are proven in the Premier League, let alone the Championship. The interest in Diouf suggests not that this would be an emergency signing, but that he would be an integral piece in creating a typical Allardyce team.

Fans have so far tolerated a more direct style of football, a concern that Allardyce addressed when he joined the club by saying: “I can modify the module for the particular culture and the way of playing”. It was classic Allardyce management speak, but the implication was clear: West Ham will not be Bolton Mark II. The signing of Diouf would betray this suggestion of pragmatism as a lie.

The cynical West Ham fans will proclaim this as proof of a leopard not changing its spots. The majority of fans, who want Allardyce to succeed, will be left to despair.

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