Beesotted contributor, Jim Levack, shares his thoughts on the latest twist in the Yoane Wissa dispute.. on a day it has been reported the former Brentford favourite has deleted all references to Brentford Football Club on his Instagram account!
Football’s a funny old game isn’t it? A few months ago Yoane Wissa was making a strong case for a premature induction into the Hall of Fame as our record Premier League goalscorer.
A bright and bubbly character who kept morale up alongside his buddy Bryan, a hard-working, hard-pressing lethal finisher… at the heart of our Freed From Desire celebration.
Today he will be remembered by Brentford fans as petulant, childish, greedy, entitled or – and this is giving him the benefit of the doubt – hugely gullible and easily led.
If it’s his choice to unfollow the club on social media, change his profile picture to black and remove all club photos from his Instagram account then he has spectacularly failed the no dickheads rule.
If it’s at the behest of his agent then I’d like to think it’s just the stuff of spoiled brat tantrums and we can work through it. Though personally I’m not sure we want someone who doesn’t want to wear the shirt or train with his mates, around the place.
For him to do it a day after the Premier League low of Forest is ill-timed, insensitive and disruptive… but I doubt that played any part in his decision-making process.
Let’s not forget it’s Brentford who gave him the platform to be where he is today. He repaid us with goals, sure. But does a contract mean nothing in the modern game?
If the answer’s no then the Premier League and FA need to take a long hard look at what they want the game to look like several years from now. Or player power will destroy it.
We’ve been here before with the Tarkowski incident, but this is a whole new level shithousery and one that casts a dark shadow over the game in this country.
Hearts say let him rot in the reserves for two years. If I was in charge with a bottomless pit of money I’d be all over that. His career would be two years on, and he’d be left to rue his avarice every week.
Heads though say we should rid ourselves of the ungrateful employee in breach of contract for a fee of our choosing and insist on a clause stipulating that he can’t play against us… for his own wellbeing.
Of course, there’s the argument that players have a limited career and need to make hay for the sake of their families. But in life there are right ways of doing things and wrong – this is definitely wrong and if he doesn’t know it then he’s everything that needs removing from the game.
Bryan did it the right way and will earn an ovation from the Brentford fans on his return because we’re by and large a principled bunch shaped by where we came from.
Wissa seems to have forgotten his roots. It’s a crying shame and something that in years to come he may regret. But probably not.
Like most Bees fans I want this whole saga over with one way or the other so we can replace him with a player of good character who actually wants to be here.
But my overriding emotion is one of deep sadness that a man can go from hero status to villain in such a short space of time. But that’s football and the modern game.
Where contracts aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, where the clickbait and supposedly informed media plant inaccurate seeds to alter the narrative and where the days of reporters actually reporting facts will soon be a thing of the past.
If I sound like a bitter journalist who misses the days of loyalty, trusted coverage and players who’d sweat blood for the shirt they donned, then I make no apologies apart from one where I apologise for our football media.
Be under no illusion they have played their part in the Wissa debacle, unquestioningly feeding like rats off scraps tossed to them by agents interested only in lining pockets and turning heads.
Fact has become a hostage of Wissa’s version of the truth.
He has either been ill-advised or is a greedy man with no sense of loyalty to the people who made him – either way, he’ll discover that Karma has a habit of coming back to haunt you in life.
Jim Levack
Does anyone know who he claims to have spoken to at the club that gave him assurances he could leave this season if a €30m bid came in for him for a PL club or a €40m from abroad? I’d be surprised if talk of him departing actually took place between any of those in a position of authority at the club. Further more id be amazed if that conversation included a sale figure! Has AI duped him?
I’d like to give Wissa the benefit of the doubt and say it’s his agent that has got into his head.
The same moron who is feeding scraps of raw meat to the graduates who pass for journalists these days.
Football agents are killing the game that we love, the PL and others need to start reining them in.
Hopefully he will move to Saudi so that we don’t have to see him again playing against us
Its his only option Lichfield hes cooked his goose, the Geordies wont pay 40 mil for another a dick head ?