As West Ham’s Ravel Morrison skipped past the Spurs defence and slotted the ball into the empty net at White Hart Lane to make it 3-0 to the Hammers, you simply had to sit back and take in what you saw.
Immediately after he was earmarked as a wild-card player to potentially be included in Roy Hodgson’s England World Cup squad if he could produce the same kind of performances as he did in that game against Tottenham.
Then it all went horribly wrong. Rumours that he was shunned by boss Sam Allardyce due to his refusal of changing his agent to the same one, were quickly labelled as untrue.
He then spent the remainder of the season on loan at QPR where he managed to help them secure promotion to the Premier League. Safe to say that he was then overlooked and not called up to the England side for the World Cup this summer.
Now that this season is just under a month away from starting, Morrison finds himself in a rather awkward yet powerful position.
The fans love him. He’s viewed as one of the next best players this country can produce.
More importantly, co-owner of West Ham David Sullivan likes him. So much so that even after Allardyce said Morrison wasn’t part of his plans, Sullivan revealed he wants to offer the player a new contract.
Take into account that the majority of West Ham fans don’t want Allardyce there anyway, there’s only one winner from this, surely?
A manager who isn’t liked by the fans, where the owners have outlined what the manager needs to do, who to sign and how to play. Allardyce isn’t used to these kind of demands. But should he be?
Big Sam is reportedly the thirteenth highest paid manager in Europe. He earns more than England boss Roy Hodgson.
West Ham are a club who have always expected big things from their manager, Allardyce is no exception.
Given this latest row, it is now time for him to walk away from the Hammers and still have some pride left intact, instead of playing the waiting game and hoping for that nice pay off.
Something has got to give and if Big Sam allows Sullivan to over-rule him on this Morrison situation, then he loses the respect of the fans, owners and worse still, the players.
Asa Clark
Twitter: @cfcasa
You can listen to my radio show @SportsTalkUK as a podcast by clicking this link