Top News

Michail Antonio spent 10 years at West Ham, but he admitted he had to take a tough stand to make that transfer happen.

What is a footballer supposed to do when a major move is on the table but his manager refuses to let him leave?

It is a situation plenty of professional players face at one point or another, and for Antonio it was especially frustrating because Nottingham Forest’s chairman and manager were not on the same page over whether he should be sold.

At the time, Antonio was playing for a troubled Nottingham Forest side in the Championship, and his improved consistency at the age of 25, after several years of mixed performances, had put him on the radar of a number of Premier League clubs.

Antonio told FourFourTwo: "I had the players around me and everything just clicked.

"I found what I’d needed before that, when I hadn’t been consistent - I’d have a great game, I’d be a nine out of 10, then the next game I’d be a two or a three. At Forest and West Ham, I found the consistency to be seven out of 10 in every game."

Antonio’s displays naturally drew interest from Premier League clubs, but getting Forest to green-light one of those moves proved harder than he would have liked, leaving him feeling he had to take control of the situation himself.

He explained: "All I wanted for my entire career was to get to the Premier League, but Dougie Freedman was the Forest manager – he had the same agency as me, and kept telling me and the agency that he’d help me to get out.

"I believed him - but then I found out West Brom had put a bid in and the club had turned it down.

"Then West Ham came in and Forest weren’t answering their calls. I said, ‘Look, you’re not answering any calls, I’m one of the lowest-paid players at the club, either double my wages or let me go – I don’t mind playing in the Premier League on less money, because my dream is to get there’.

"They couldn’t increase my wages because they were under an embargo, and [Freedman] kept blaming the owner Fawaz [Al Hasawi], saying he didn’t want to let me go. But Fawaz needed the money to get out of the embargo, so I just thought, ‘I’m pretty sure [Fawaz] wants to sell me.’

"One day, I went into the training ground and was like, ‘Gaffer, West Ham are going to put a bid in today and I need you to accept it’.

"Later, as I was about to go home for the day, Fawaz walked in and I said, ‘Mr Chairman, can I have a chat? Dougie, Fawaz is here, we might as well have a meeting together now’.

"Dougie had a face of thunder. I found out he was blocking the deal because he couldn’t sign anyone and I was his best player. He was trying to stop my dreams, for himself.

"Later, I sent him a long text saying, ‘If I’m at this club, don’t tell me any tactics, don’t talk to me, I’ll be out on that pitch playing for myself – you won’t be my manager, I’ll be out there managing myself’.

"Within two days I was at West Ham."