Former West Ham United defender Julian Dicks: The players don’t work hard enough

Avram Grant ,West Ham United(Getty Images)

Related Links

Teams

Players

Former West Ham United captain Julian Dicks has hit out at the club’s current player’s lack of effort this season as the Hammers languish at the bottom of the Premier League table.

Avram Grant’s side are struggling to claw their way out of the relegation zone having only picked up one point from a possible 21 and lie three points from safety, and Dicks has called on the club’s players to work harder to drag the side clear in their last three matches.

“The last three games are about the players now,” he said according to the Daily Mail. “The players have to stand up and be counted.

“They are all on good money and it’s about time that they started to earn it, and that hasn’t been the case with some of them this season.”

Dicks played more than 250 games for the Hammers in ten years but doesn’t feel the current squad has enough of the often bullish attributes he used to show during his playing days.

“There’s a few players who are there that aren’t good enough,” he continued.

“That’s not their fault, but there are some players there who are good enough that don’t work hard enough.

“Robert Green has pulled off some world-class saves this year, Scotty Parker has played well, so has Mark Noble, and I like Demba Ba and Robbie Keane, but once you get past those, then you struggle to put your hand on anyone else.”

And whatever the outcome of this season, Dicks believes that the only way the club can start to move forward again is if changes are made from top to bottom at the club, starting with Grant.

“If the players don’t have passion and desire then you are going to struggle to win games so it’s down to Grant or whoever is in charge to get rid of these players.”

“I think he Grant has gone about his job particularly well given the amount of stuff that has come out about him,”

“He Grant has kept his dignity really well but football is a results-based game and if he is not getting the results then someone else has to come in and try to get results.

“If a team goes down then the manager usually goes and I don’t see it being any different at West Ham.”