In a story which has been reported in two very different ways by the Sun and the Daily Mail, evidence has come to light this morning showing a bar tab of £1,100 run up by a party of West Ham players and coaching staff at the Hilton Hotel in Staffordshire on December 15- the night before the Premier League game at West Bromwich Albion.
The Sun report that the 33-strong Hammers party spent a total of £774.85 on alcohol, including £205 on six bottles of wine and two Jack Daniels whiskies at 3.37am on December 16; the day of the match, and the implication from the tabloid, with a headline of "West Hammered", is very much that this was a case of out-of-control footballers getting on the lash. However, an official spokesman for the club denied that this was the case in any sense, stating that "this was a private bill paid by the manager as a Christmas thank you to his backroom staff," and that "no players consumed any alcoholic beverages.
The details of the club's bar tab got into the hands of the Sun after receipts were inadvertently sent to an unnamed firm, one of whose staff was quoted as saying "for a party of 33, if most were players and didn't touch a drop- which is unlikely- then that's a hell of a booze bill for the rest."
The Mail backs the Hammers spokesman up, with reporter Matt Lawless stating that "none of the first team had an alcoholic drink and hours later West Ham went to record one of their best performances away from Upton Park this season, holding Steve Clarke's in-form West Brom to a 0-0 draw." According to the paper's source, the West Ham party went to bed shortly after midnight and the two Jack Daniels, on which the Sun appears to basing their 'Hammered Hammers up drinking into early hours of morning before big game' take on the story, were nightcaps for "someone who couldn't sleep."
The feeling amongst West Ham fans so far seems to be that of grudging praise for the Mail; not always a source of well-balanced stories about the club; for their coverage of the story, and that actually, this isn't a story at all.
It's hard to disagree with that attitude; whilst it is true that the booze bill does seem extremely high for a backroom staff believed to number eight (if we assume the Hammers brought a 25-man squad up north); it should be considered that this is a well to-do hotel the squad were staying in and as such, prices were likely to be extortionate. In addition, the club's claim that this was Big Sam's treat for his backroom staff seems to check out, there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that any players drank any alcohol at all, and after all, the main fact in this story is surely that the team gave a solid, committed and thoroughly professional performance the next day to frustrate a West Brom team who had hitherto been raining in the goals all season. Innocent until proven guilty- and they seem innocent.
By Alex Shilling, News Editor
@alexshilling
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