Sticks and Stones.....

What's that about "Sticks and Stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." Well, maybe not hurt but bloody irritate, yes.

For while Pards and Curbs have wisely kept out of any potential war of words regarding Saturdays game, it seems that the West Ham chairman, Mr Eggert Magnusson can't keep his mouth shut. Apparently the "News (?) of the World" had the story first although it was also in the beeb over the weekend, although with certain offending words removed. Then it was repeated again in all its glory in the sportinglife.

Outlining the reasons for Pardew's dismissal in December, Magnusson told the News of the World: "There was no purpose to talk about it publicly at the time. But the key factor was something was just not right in the dressing room. Tension had been building between the players and the manager for a while. There was a cancer we had to cut off."

Well, that just about spells it out and puts the dots on the i's so to speak, unless, of course, there's been some mistake on the News' (?) part - wouldn't be the first time would it - some element of lost in translation perhaps, although English is not exactly an unknown language in Iceland, just ask Hermann Hreidarsson.

But it all seems rather strange that Egghead should choose to wait over two months to tell everyone his reasons. Maybe the timing is not a coincidence with such an important fixture coming up in just 4 days time. And Eggbert, whose 60th birthday it is today, didn't get to be the CEO of an import/export and bread and biscuit manufacturing company without being able to spot people's weaknesses. Maybe he thinks that our Pards is going to get upset by his words, loss some sleep and take his mind of the more important issue of Saturday.

Well, think again Mr Egghead. Not for nothing is Pards' motto - Tenacity, Spirit and Flair. If you want to play psychological games, try it elsewhere. This is not the time to be giving interviews to news(?)papers containing acid remarks about ones' ex-employees that your team has to face in their next game. For it's just possible that your barbed comments are going to worry your own Manager rather than ours.