Chris Sutton is at it again.
If ever there was evidence that he often doesn’t believe a word he’s being paid to say, it’s the difference in his two predictions for West Ham‘s results on BBC Sport over the last few weeks.
Sutton was one of the biggest cryers of “be careful what you wish for” when some corners of the West Ham fanbase were calling for David Moyes to leave the club last season.
Sutton accused those fans of being “entitled” and wanted “fantasy football.” Obviously that’s without understanding what the fans were actually asking for and without even bothering to try to understand. Why do that when you can just take things at face value and express your opinion based on assumptions rather than facts?
Last week, there was a very, very small hint that Sutton may have been prepared to eat humble pie. As he predicted the outcome of the Hammers’ visit to Craven Cottage, Sutton said: “Fulham are bright and try to play good football, and West Ham are the same.
“The Hammers actually ran Manchester City pretty close before the international break.”
Yes, you read that correctly. Sutton admitted that West Ham try to play good football, which is the exact thing he said fans should be careful wishing for during calls for Moyes’ exit, and played well against champions Man City.
But it hasn’t lasted long. Indeed, West Ham’s performance at Fulham wasn’t attractive and we didn’t earn a 1-1 draw by playing attractive football. It was a poor performance and not conduce of the more expressive style of football we’ve been looking to see under Julen Lopetegui.
As a result, Sutton has reverted to type and take a swipe at West Ham and Tim Stiedten in his prediction for West Ham’s clash with Chelsea on Saturday.
He said on BBC Sport: “West Ham supposedly replaced David Moyes because they wanted to play ‘the West Ham way’, and the Hammers technical director Tim Stiedten was reportedly flying managers in for talks when Moyes was still in charge.
“In his wisdom, Stiedten decided to go for Julen Lopetegui, a manager with similar traits to Moyes in terms of how he is a pragmatist.
“This is a very difficult game to call because west Ham have not been playing particularly well and I am not convinced by Chelsea either.”
So which is it, Chris? Are West Ham playing well or not? We played well against Manchester City, according to you, but didn’t in the next game against Fulham, and now we haven’t been playing particularly well full stop?
It’s either a clear hatred of West Ham, a sheer lack of understanding of West Ham’s reasons for parting ways with Moyes, a lack of knowledge beyond his own misled opinions, a desperate need to be controversial in an attempt to remain relevant, or a mixture of all of the above. It’s very much likely to be the latter.
I wonder how many more times Sutton will contradict himself in his match predictions this season, as well as start throwing punches at the club whenever they don’t play well.
At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d find fault in the club even if we went on to finish in the top seven this season.
The fact is, if he’d actually bothered to pay attention, there have been some signs of a more expressive style of football under Lopetegui, but it’s still taking time for the players to get used to it.
But why would he pay attention when he knows he can just say what he wants and still get paid for it regardless?
It’s also incredibly rich for Sutton to be taking swipes at managers when his only attempt at being a manager led to just 14 wins in 50 games as Lincoln City boss between 2009 and 2010 – that’s a 28% win ratio, by the way.
