What a difference a club makes. A few months ago, Javier Mascherano couldn’t get selected for West Ham’s ailing first XI. He was rated behind the likes of Hayden Mullins and Nigel Medi-Ocre. Having watched Mascherano closely during the 2006 World Cup in Germany, this astonished me – the young Argentine was clearly one of the best holding midfielders at the tournament. Mascherano’s mature performance for Liverpool against Arsenal on Saturday confirmed what I first thought: he is potentially a world-class player.
It is a damning indictment of West Ham that they could not accommodate Mascherano or figure out a way to build their midfield around him. Alan Pardew had no faith in him and destroyed his confidence. Yet another example of an English manager failing to get anything like the best out of a foreign talent.