Alongside Lucas Paqueta, another ‘unacceptable’ West Ham ace makes a ‘big mistake’

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With only 11 points to their name after 13 Premier League matches this season, Tomas Soucek and the rest of the West Ham United players are fairly used to criticism coming from the terraces these days.

West Ham gifted Liverpool the easiest of victories on Sunday afternoon. Wasting their chance to add to Arne Slot’s woes with the most passive performance imaginable on a day when Lucas Paqueta was sent off in ‘ridiculous’ fashion.

And this time, coming off the bench again late on with the Hammers crying out for a goal, there was to be no saving the day by ‘supersub’ Tomas Soucek.

November had been a funny old month for the long-serving West Ham United midfielder.

On one hand, while scoring two key goals off the bench against Newcastle and Burnley, Soucek equalled Patrik Berger’s Premier League record of 38 top-flight goals. The joint-most by any Czech player in the competition’s history.

Speaking of the Czech Republic, though, Soucek lost the captain’s armband for allegedly refusing to acknowledge the Fanatismus Cesko fan group after the recent 6-0 thrashing of Gibraltar at the Andruv Stadium in Olomouc.

Not even Jaroslav Tvrdik, the Slavia Prague president who came to know Soucek so well during the midfielder’s time at the reigning Czech champions, was willing to go into bat for him.

Jaroslav Tvrdik says West Ham United’s Tomas Soucek made a ‘big mistake’ on Czech Republic duty

Losing the armband means Tomas Soucek’s World Cup dream is suddenly in doubt. He always wanted to captain his nation at the biggest tournament of all.

Now, even if the Czech Republic manage to get past the Republic of Ireland in the play-offs, there is no guarantee that Soucek will be the man chosen to lead the team out in North America next summer.

“What happened in Olomouc cannot be understood,” Tvrdik, who is also a member of the Czech FA’s Executive Committee, tells Idnes. “We play football for the fans, for the sponsors. And if someone does not understand that, they should not represent [their country].

“It’s incomprehensible to me. It seems to me that they are detached from reality. We have to play football for the fans and this was disrespectful.”

Soucek, along with former West Ham teammate Vladimir Coufal and a handful of others, reportedly turned their back on the ultra group because they ‘did not feel unity’ with the Fanatismus Cesko members, per Sporty Zive.

The relationship between the players and the supporters certainly grew strained during a fraught qualifying campaign. Soucek has come in for plenty of criticism, too. While finishing second in their group, the Czech Republic suffered humiliating 5-1 and 2-1 losses at the hands of Croatia and minnows the Faroe Islands.

“I think they realised that it was a big mistake, at least the Slavia players for sure. For me, this is unacceptable behaviour,” Tvrdik added, having reached out to Soucek in the immediate aftermath.

“When the match ended, I was happy that the players had won. But when news started to come out about what was happening in Olomouc, I was horrified.

“Tomas had a reaction from me immediately after I registered it. We communicated with each other the next day. I really like Tomas, he recently launched his book here in the fan shop. I think he got carried away and committed behaviour that is not part of his nature. And he heard that from me.”

Slavia Prague president would have given Soucek a tougher punishment

Soucek was given a small fine, as well as losing the armband. Tvrdik, though, feels an even stricter punishment would have been fair, albeit without explaining exactly what his preferred response would have been.

“In Slavia we have a mechanism where the captain is chosen by the players. In the national team, however, the captain is determined by the FA management. My opinion is that we should have reacted even more forcefully to this,” he adds.

“I don’t understand how such a situation could have happened. The punishment was not severe enough. The punishment was at the lower limit of my imagination.”

Speaking of disciplinary issues, the West Ham fans are having none of Lucas Paqueta’s excuses after he talked his way into an early bath on Sunday.

The Brazilian international will now miss Thursday’s trip to Manchester United. He has picked up more yellow cards this season than goals and assists combined.