James Rodriguez ruled out of Everton clash v West Ham, Carlo Ancelotti fumes at journalist
Carlo Ancelotti clashed with a Colombian journalist after he ruled James Rodriguez out of Sunday’s Everton v West Ham clash, according to Greg O’Keeffe.
The Blues travel to East London this weekend six points behind their hosts, but with the knowledge that a victory would pull them to within three points of David Moyes’ side, with a game in hand.
They’ll have to do without the services of their influential playmaker Rodriguez once again, however, with the 29-year-old set to miss his second successive game after his absence from last week’s 2-1 loss to Aston Villa.
Ancelotti held his pre-West Ham press conference on Friday, but events got slightly heated according to The Athletic’s O’Keeffe.
He wrote on his personal Twitter profile, “Interesting there. Not often that Carlo Ancelotti is anything but polite and easy-going to media but got tetchy with a Colombian journalist who pressed him on James Rodriguez’s “little problem” that keeps him out of key West Ham game. Refused to elaborate further.”
Cool Carlo on the defensive
Our Italian tactician is famed for his personable approach to interviews and ability to keep his cool at all times, but it appears his guard slipped somewhat here as a journalist went too far in their line of questioning.
We’re not entirely sure why he took umbrage with the Rodriguez question, perhaps it’s a personal issue that he doesn’t want to take any further, or maybe he’s just fed up of repeated questions over his absence.
Rodriguez is adored in his homeland of Colombia and anything that happens to him is big news over there, so the Colombian journalist can probably be forgiven for trying to extract as much information about their hero as possible.
Whatever the real reason, his absence from another key game is sure to grate at Ancelotti.
When he’s been on the pitch he’s been magic for the most part, but he’s only played 22 of our 33 Premier League fixtures so far, heading into Sunday’s clash.
How very different our season could have been if he was available for all of them.
In other Everton news, Blues want to sign ‘Unstoppable’ wantaway midfielder available for cut-price £35m – Sky Sports.
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