Speaking on the Super Six Podcast, Sheffield United centre-back Phil Jagielka has opened up on the Blades’ relegation back in 2007 and almost signing for West Ham.
Every Sheffield United fan will remember the scandalous nature of their relegation in the mid-2000s as West Ham and Carlos Tevez, who technically shouldn’t have been allowed to play, condemned the Blades to relegation on the final day of the season.
Jagielka was a part of that United side, and he was understandably not happy with the nature of their relegation.
However, what very few people know is that the Hammers actually tried to sign Jagielka after they secured safety in the Premier League for themselves.
“Unfortunately, I gave away a penalty that ended up costing us for handball, we hit the post, we did all-sorts. Then you hear that West Ham are winning at Man U. There was a bitter taste in your mouth,” Jagielka said.
“You know, I wouldn’t say they broke the rules, but they bent the rules. Theu didn’t own two of the players, the agent owned them and sort of struck a deal with West Ham and two of them played. Tevez went on to have an amazing career, and Mascherano as well had an amazing career. So these were two players who, realistically, no disrespect to West Ham, they wouldn’t have been able to afford having them on a level playing field,”
“They found a way of doing it and got away with it and we went down on goal difference. I reported back for pre-season and on the first day of pre-season I had a phone call and I think it was Alan Curbishley on the phone, and he said he’d love to have me, but probably understood that I was the captain of the club at the time and I’d come through the youth and it would have been spitting in Sheff Utd fans’ faces if I’d have gone.”
Jagielka joining West Ham after the Tevez scandal probably would have sparked riots in Sheffield, but we have to wonder how different things would have been if he’d joined the Hammers.
Let’s not forget that Jagielka was one of the Premier League’s finest centre-backs in his pomp, earning 40 England caps and even captaining the Three Lions at one point.
If he’d joined West Ham, the London club’s fate in the late 2000s and early 2010s could have been very different indeed.
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