LONDON: It has been a while since an Asian team has upset fans in the English Premier League. Chinese Super League clubs did it on a regular basis for a while as they spent big in the previous decade to bring in big stars.
Now Al-Hilal have managed to get under the skin of West Ham United fans who were looking forward to seeing Matheus Pereira in East London. The Brazilian playmaker is heading to Riyadh instead.
There have been comments that smack of sour grapes especially after Pereira issued a statement on social media saying that he wanted to leave. Radio pundit and former Liverpool striker Dean Saunders said: “If you want to leave, put it in writing. Obviously, the player can’t put it in writing because he loses money, and he loses the fans’ respect. I’ve seen Pereira’s letter. Basically, he should just put a line through it and say, ‘Look I’m going for the money.’”
Pereira, however, likely did not grow up dreaming of playing for West Bromwich Albion and was presumably offered an increase in salary by the club when signing in 2019. Premier League teams have long occupied the top of the transfer tree and are quite happy to outbid rivals in other leagues in the search for talent. Yet, they can be touchy when they get a taste of their own medicine. The fact that there is such a reaction from some West Ham United fans should be music to the ears of followers of the Riyadh club. The bitterer the comments become, the better the player looks. Simply put, if West Ham United fans didn’t know that Pereira was so good, they wouldn’t care about his decision to head to Saudi Arabia.
Pereira has been in demand for some time and was the standout performer for West Bromwich Albion last season. The fact that he scored 11 goals and recorded six assists in a struggling team meant that he was always going to leave once the Baggies dropped to the second tier and there was always going to be lots of interest from clubs around Europe and elsewhere with Aston Villa and Leicester City reportedly interested.
It looks to be a shrewd signing. Al-Hilal approached a club that was in the Premier League last season and took their best player. Not only that but, at 25, the midfielder, who has signed a five-year contract, has his best years ahead of him. This is no veteran looking for a couple of gentle seasons before retirement; this is a player who should get better and better.
With Sebastian Giovinco leaving Al-Hilal to head to PAOK Athens and a reunion with former boss Razvan Lucescu, Pereira provides a ready-made replacement, and more important than any put-out noses in England is the fact that this signing will have rivals in Saudi Arabia a little worried too. Al-Hilal have been champions for the last two years and look to have had a good summer.
New boss Leonardo Jardim has an impressive resume and if he can build a team in Riyadh like he did in Monaco then the others in the league will have to pull out the stops to stop a third title in a row. Moussa Marega arrived from Porto to add some firepower to an already potent attack and now comes a proven performer in Pereira.
He has already demonstrated in the Premier League what he can do. Technically excellent with an ability to read the game that will serve well in Saudi Arabia, the former Bundesliga rookie of the year always looks to drive teams forward whether by dribbling or a killer pass. After shining in the fastest league in the world, Pereira should excel in the somewhat gentler pace of football in the heat of West Asia.
His arrival shows the kind of talent that the new coach is looking to bring in, and should Pereira find his feet quickly then the likes of Marega and Bafetimbi Gomis will be terrorizing defenses in Saudi Arabia and Asia. It is up to the other contenders such as Al-Shabab, Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli to rise to the occasion.
Al-Hilal, who arrived back in Riyadh earlier this week after an Austrian training camp, are doing what all successful clubs should do: strengthening from a position of strength. Pereira has the potential to light up the league. He shone at a club that was at the bottom all season in England so he really should be something special when playing for the champions, and that will make the bitter barbs from London all the sweeter.
