It increasingly feels like it is becoming a three horse race to escape the final Premier League relegation spot; West Ham United, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur.
Three former European-winning stallions, now miserable mules facing a trip to the glue factory.
Though former West Ham United manager Alan Pardew feels his old employers might just cross the finish line by a nose, especially with Crysencio Summerville threatening to do what Carlos Tevez did all those years ago at Upton Park.
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This was actually the second time in 24 hours that Summerville was likened to Tevez; the man whose stunning spring-time goal glut provided the spark which ignited the ‘Great Escape’ of 2007. If that remarkable tale of fight and flight is to get a sequel, then the free-scoring Dutchman is likely to be cast in the main role.
Alan Pardew likens Crysencio Summerville to West Ham United icon Carlos Tevez
While unable to add to his run of six goals in seven games, Summerville was again West Ham’s stand-out performer during Saturday’s 0-0 draw with AFC Bournemouth. While the first of Tevez’s seven Premier League goals in 2006/07 came as late as March, the former Leeds winger ended a 14-month goal drought against Tottenham in mid-January.
He has barely been able to stop scoring since.
Pardew reflects on the seemingly-fatal blow West Ham suffered over a month ago, when Summerville had a goal ruled out for offside in a 2-1 defeat by relegation rivals Nottingham Forest. How things have changed since then, not only for the club but for their number seven too.
“I was at the West Ham vs Forest game,” Pardew tells talkSPORT. “West Ham had gone ahead early, but Forest turned it around. At that point, it felt as though they couldn’t win!
“They’d only won three games all season, and you thought they’d never win three more. Yet, they’ve now got themselves to six wins.
“Historically, to get out of the bottom of the division, you need one of your offensive players to really come to life. Tevez springs to mind. At the moment, they’ve got Summerville.
“He has come into a rich vein of form and that is massively important. Nottingham Forest haven’t got that [talismanic presence] at the moment, so West Ham have that slight advantage.”
Pardew thinks Hammers and Tottenham are being left behind in the market
On current form, Summerville is comfortably the best attacker amongst that trio of clubs stuck between 16th and 18th. The decline in attacking quality available to arch rivals Tottenham has been as stark as, say, Steven Spielberg’s E.T. and the maligned, trumped up McDonald’s advert that was Mac and Me.
From Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son to Richarlison and Mathys Tel.
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“Since Mauricio Pochettino was there, there’s not one player in [the current Spurs] team that would get into his team,” argues Pardew, who played very briefly for Tottenham in the mid-1990s. “No one. And the reason we’re having trouble is we can’t score any goals.”
Pardew believes the recent decline of West Ham and Spurs – European trophy winners in 2023 and 2025 – owes much to what he feels is an outdated approach to recruitment.
West Ham have made steps forward in that department with the likes of El Hadji Malick Diouf, but the three Bs of Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth have overtaken more traditional outfits due to their excellent data-led strategy and a wealth of top-class hires.
“In the old days, [Spurs] had the money and no one else did, and we messed everyone about. Now, no one wants to deal with Spurs,” Pardew says.
“I think some agents have been put off by how [difficult] it is to do a deal at Tottenham. One of the issues the Premier League is having – particularly teams like West Ham and Spurs, why they are in the position they are in a little bit – is that the teams below them are functioning so much better. So much more professionalism, and they are paying the money!
“‘If you come to Bournemouth, we’ll give you a stage! You’ll definitely play’.
“If I was an agent, I’d want to park my new young centre-forward, who’s only 21, at Bournemouth because I know he’s going to play. So there are factors that are causing problems for teams like West Ham and Spurs.”
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