The clashes between West Ham United’s backroom team and the Bayer Leverkusen staff were caused by the Hammers, with David Moyes even taunting Xabi Alonso.
That’s according to BILD, who accuse the West Ham boss of continuing matters behind the scenes after ‘sparks were flying’ on the touchline.
The Hammers were knocked out of the Europa League by the newly crowned Bundesliga champions on Thursday, with a 1-1 draw not enough to overcome the 2-0 defeat in the first leg last week.
Like in the game in Germany the game proved to be a feisty one, with clashes on the sidelines between the two management teams leading to cards being shown and the referee intervening.
This all came from the first leg and comments from Moyes himself, who had labelled the Leverkusen bench as ‘disgraceful’ following their reaction to a foul from Amine Adli on Lucas Paqueta, which he felt deserved a red but didn’t because of how they reacted.
He was asked after this game if that had caused problems and he hinted it had and a brief meeting between himself and Alonso afterwards only produced an ‘ice-cold look’, strengthening the idea they really don’t like each other.
Indeed, Moyes’ comments after about knowing what Spanish coaches and their teams are like after working in the country himself was seen as an insult he ‘couldn’t resist making’ rather than an observation.
In other words, as far as BILD are concerned, Leverkusen are completely innocent and all the trouble was of West Ham’s making, presumably because Alonso is too handsome and too well dressed to be causing such problems.
