By Neal Collins
London
Benni McCarthy has been told he STILL isn't fit to play for the Premier League's worst club.
On Friday, West Ham co-owner David Sullivan praised Bafana Bafana's record goal-scorer for losing 7kg after six weeks under the threat of a £38 000 fine if the overweight striker didn't lose a kilogram a week.
But, after McCarthy was mysteriously left out of the squad for their fourth consecutive defeat of the season against Chelsea on Saturday, pointless boss Avram Grant gave his version of events: "I was surprised Benni was like this when I arrived at the club.
"He was brought here to perform and then there was the World Cup in his country.
"If I look at the past about many things I will be like many people here at the club who always say "last year was not this, not that" ... I say to everybody "I don't care what happened. I'm looking forward", and so is Benni McCarthy."
Grant left relegated Portsmouth to take over from Gianfranco Zola at Upton Park over the summer.
Italian Zola was the one who splashed out £2.2m to lure McCarthy from Blackburn in January. Since then McCarthy - who also failed to make South Africa's 23-man World Cup squad - has played just seven games, scoring no goals in a total playing time of just 180 minutes.
West Ham are hardly thriving without him. They've scored three goals in five games this season with a Carling Cup win over lowly Oxford their only success.
Though Scott Parker continues to star in midfield, defensive lynchpins Robert Green and Matthew Upson have lost their England places and are coming under pressure from worried Hammers fans.
Green, whose World Cup blunder against the United States in Phokeng was beamed around the world, was at fault for Chelsea's first goal on Saturday. And the fans gave an ironic cheer when he caught the ball cleanly soon afterwards.
Grant grumbled: "Sometimes supporters love you, sometimes they are against you. You need to do your job anyway.
"Rob is a tough guy. He's a good goalkeeper and he needs to react like a man, which he is doing.
"What happened in the World Cup, even if he'd been the best player, the most important thing is to react - not just him, any player.
"He's a good goalkeeper. Let's say he was not happy with his performances sometimes, but this is part of the game," added the West Ham manager.
Source - iol.co.za
