Despite all the furore that is still clouding West Ham’s day to day business, the club have risked the wrath of the football world once more by starting Kurt Zouma against Leicester City.
The King Power Stadium will be packed to the rafters, and there can be little doubt that the major focus will be on the cat-abusing centre-back.
By starting him again, the Hammers have made their position clear, and have effectively brought any further scrutiny upon themselves.
David Moyes will claim it’s nothing to do with football of course, and that’s a narrative he’ll meekly hide behind until the outrage dies down a little.
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The club haven’t covered themselves in glory over the whole sorry saga either.
The Mirror report how the RSPCA refute Moyes’ apparent words that the club had made a donation to them, and nor have they confirmed that West Ham were seeking to put Zouma on a course to understand how to treat animals.
From a PR point of view, this has been an incredible embarrassment for the East Londoners who, if they’d shown some moral fibre of their own, might have seen this disappear far quicker than it has.
Not that Moyes will be concerned, as his only focus, it seems, is on winning enough football games to get West Ham into the Champions League for the first time ever.
Here’s how we line up today against @LCFC…@betway | #LEIWHU pic.twitter.com/N9LSHRrmjz
— West Ham United (@WestHam) February 13, 2022