Former West Ham favourite Frank McAvennie has slammed manager Manuel Pellegrini for deciding to return home to Chile over the international break.
The Hammers boss has flown home on personal business over the break in a move which raised eyebrows with the club still yet to earn a single Premier League point after four games.
McAvennie has now lended his voice to the debate and criticised the 64-year-old for jetting home instead of remaining at Rush Green and overseeing training with those not on international duty.
Speaking to Claret and Hugh, McAvennie said: “It’s all well and good saying his staff can look after things and that’s true but I think it sends out the wrong message to be missing when things aren’t going so well.
“As I’ve said before I have no doubt he will turn things around but I would have liked to have seen him at the club during the break.”
OPINION
McAvennie is quite clearly not impressed by Pellegrini’s decision to leave the club for home over the international break, and it is hard to disagree with him. The Hammers have endured a pretty atrocious start to the season, with their only win so far coming against League One side AFC Wimbledon in the Carabao Cup, and you would think the Chilean would want to rectify that as soon as possible. While there is the argument, as McAvennie references, that his assistants are perfectly capable of taking training, that is not really the point. Pellegrini needs to take responsibility for his team’s form and should be wanting to address the club’s problems first hand. Instead, he is off home, and that does not send out the best message. Hopefully we are proved wrong with some good performances after the international break, but the prospect of matches Everton and Chelsea means things are not set to get any easier.