We are finally looking like a football team. We’ve won games, kept clean sheets and stopped a world-famous haircut, all while steadfastly refusing to climb out of the relegation zone.
We’re looking up, but with two much-needed players receiving red cards in recent games, our lack of cool heads could be costing us dearly in multiple competitions.
Granted, we’re nowhere near the red card collection of Chelsea, who, at the time of writing, have a league-high of six – but it doesn’t affect a club with deep benches and deeper pockets quite as much as it impacts a club struggling at the other end of the table.
Todibo’s Red Mist and the Rise of Axel Disasi
Our first red card was a notable one, as defender Jean-Clair Todibo tried to commit a murder by strangulation in full view of the cameras against Chelsea.
A dispute between Adama Traore and Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella escalated quickly and violently – and within minutes Jean-Clair came running over to put his hands around the neck of Chelsea player Joao Pedro, who was also behaving badly but not badly enough that he needed to be choked out.
Given that we’re in a relegation scrap, you could question whether or not this red card indicates that Todibo “cares too much,” or whether it instead displayed a worrying lack of discipline.
Racing across the pitch to manually strangle someone is definitely a way to show you care about a result, but unfortunately, it’s likely more to be the latter – a worrying lack of discipline.
Behaving that badly when you’re in a game that you must get points from – and, worse, that you still have a small chance to get points from – is unacceptable.
He was admittedly unlucky to be the only player sent off in the affray – a fact especially poignant after both teams received their respective fines, with Chelsea needing to pay £25,000 more in fines than the club who had the player sent off.
Although we went on to lose the game, the multi-game absence of Todibo wasn’t really noticed over the next few outings – something Todibo himself will be kicking himself (or strangling himself) for.
The addition of Axel Disasi has been a revelation – and Todibo’s suspension has given Disasi the perfect opportunity to get his boots on the pitch and form a partnership with Dinos Mavropanos – with the duo conceding just one goal in three league games.
Freddie Potts’ FA Cup Scare and the Pressure on Youth
Whereas Todibo’s red card cost us, Freddie Potts’ FA Cup offering was frustrating, but fortunately didn’t prevent us from – eventually – defeating Burton Albion. The team made incredibly hard work of the game before the 22 year old was sent off for a reckless challenge on Julian Larsson in extra time, and reducing the team to 10 should have been exactly what Burton needed to perform a semi-giant killing.
Potts is certainly a fan favourite – and everyone at the club is well aware that there’s big pressure sitting on very young shoulders owing to the lack of senior players available – but this sending off could have cost us our place in the FA Cup.
Should he get a pass compared to Todibo because he’s young, because he’s from the Academy – or, more simply, because the tackle itself was quite divisive, with some fans calling the sending off ‘controversial’ while TnT sports called it ‘a horror challenge.’
Costly Dismissals: Remembering Cresswell’s European Heartbreak
We’re no strangers to a costly red card at West Ham – probably none more so than in our time in Europe, when Aaron Cresswell developed a real taste for torpedoing our European ambitions.
In 2022, Cresswell was sent off after just 19 minutes into the Europa League semi-final second leg, ending our European journey.
He wasn’t the only one seeing red that night – manager David Moyes was also sent off after kicking a ball at a ball boy – but it wasn’t Cresswell’s only time getting sent off in the competition.
In the previous round, he also saw red against Lyon – and his serial sendings off did eventually cost us dearly.
Red Card Legends: When Dicks, Řepka, and Moncur Saw Red
But not all red cards are bad ones – some actually play a vital role in a player’s legend status at the club.
Tomáš Řepka is certainly one such player. He was sent off on his debut for the club, missed the next match through suspension, and then was given a straight red on his return. His temperament wasn’t great, but he left fans in no doubt of his commitment to the game.
Julian Dicks loved a tackle and a red – and it’s scary to think how many he’d have accrued today.
In his era, his red cards still raised eyebrows – and in January 1993, his third red card of the season arrived (for two bad tackles) and there were calls for him to be banned from football.
By September 1995, Dicks had been cautioned 52 times and sent off nine times before video from a match was used to charge him with ‘conduct likely to bring the game into disrepute’ after he stamped on the head of a Chelsea player.
We do love a trier. John Moncur was another one with a temper – but he used it to delight fans and wind up Tottenham, when he was sent off in 1999 for a nasty challenge at the end of a winning game for the Hammers.
“Looking back, that particular sending-off was probably stupid but, equally, I’ll never forget the West Ham fans chanting my name as I gave them a clenched-fist salute on my way down the tunnel,” he recently said.
Keeping Our Heads in the Fight for Survival
There’s a time and a place for a red card, as we’ve seen through the years – and fans respect the passion that players bring, which sometimes boils over and leads to a sending off.
But when it comes to a team in the relegation zone, there’s too much at stake for the team to go down to 10 men – especially when we need that passion to pull us towards survival.
Be the first to comment