George Parris: ‘FA Cup exit was awful but race for Europe is still on for West Ham’

Being knocked out of the FA Cup to AFC Wimbledon was massively disappointing. We just weren’t up for it, and the first half performance was lacklustre.

Look at the players we had playing that night, we should have won the game. Regardless of who you are playing, there is a certain standard you have to achieve and if you don’t hit those heights, that’s how upsets happen.

Just looking at what the draw might have been and which clubs are still in the competition – it really feels like this might have been our year. To our credit they bounced back well against Liverpool – we could have won it had we taken our chances.

January – and the Liverpool game – was very West Ham. Do well against Arsenal and Liverpool but get turned over by Bournemouth, Wolves and Wimbledon. But at least we did bounce back against Liverpool and now we need to kick on because there’s plenty of football left to play. We find ourselves in a mini-league fighting for seventh place.

Looking at those in this group, we’ve all been consistently inconsistent this season but clearly have done enough to keep us away from the relegation scrap. It’ll be interesting to see which of those teams is able to get a run going and top this mini-league.

Marko saga rumbles on

I found the whole Marko Arnautovic saga really strange. In true West Ham fashion, it ended with him signing a new contract and then getting injured in the next match.

But more than that, he apparently was keen to leave West Ham and the Premier League to go to China to win trophies. Really? That was quite laughable.

I think if he’d said he wanted to go to earn more money, people might have understood that given how short a player’s career is. While others would have said he earns enough already. It will be interesting to see what happens come the end of the season. Every player has their prize and he might go in the summer.

And while Arnie’s time at West Ham could be coming to an end, a permanent fixture at London Stadium will be the name Billy Bonds which is a fantastic honour and well deserved. He was a great servant for the club and it made sense with Trev and Bobby on the other two stands.

Yes, it could have come earlier and I’m sure he’d have preferred it to have been at Upton Park – where he spent such a long time playing and managing – but I’m glad it has happened.