Furious West Ham fans demand Said Benrahma never plays for club again after ‘assault’ on Bristol City opponent
FURIOUS West Ham fans have demanded that Said Benrahma "never plays for the club again" after he was sent off in their shock FA Cup defeat to Bristol City.
His 51st-minute red card came with the Hammers trailing the Championship club 1-0.
The Hammers were dumped out by Tommy Conway's early strike after an error by Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Then Benrahma was sent off for kicking out at Joe Williams after being on the receiving end of a heavy tackle.
The petulant red summed up Benrahma's night, with the winger not getting any joy down the left-flank.
West Ham never recovered from Conway’s goal in the third minute after Mavropanos made a costly mistake.
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Hammers boss David Moyes felt Darren England made the right decision to send off Benrahma, but was unhappy with some of the tackles made by Bristol City players.
Moyes said: “It’s incredible they call it the best cup competition in the world. Yet one week you have VAR, one week you don’t.
“I find it quite ridiculous they try to claim that, but it’s not level for every club.
“If we’re not having VAR we shouldn’t have it in the tournament at all. If we’re going to have it, then have it everywhere.”
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The red card comes with Benrahma on the brink of a move away from the club.
SunSport's Jack Rosser reported on Tuesday that West Ham had rejected a loan bid from Marseille for the winger.
West Ham are understood to be holding out for a fee of £25million for Benrahma this window, with Marseille's offer only consisting of a loan with an option to buy in the summer.
Fellow Ligue 1 giants Lyon are also understood to be interested in the Algerian winger.
West Ham are reluctant to sell Benrahma in light of a medium-term injury to Lucas Paqueta.
Jarrod Bowen's struggles for fitness also affects any deal, alongside Mohammed Kudus being away at Afcon with Ghana.
But tonight's red, which came with West Ham trailing 1-0 has made up a lot of fans' minds on whether the player should be sold.
One Hammers fan took to X to say: "Said Benrahma should never play for this club again. Absolutely disgraceful."
Another wrote: "Benrahma probably just ended his Premier League career there, pathetic."
A third posted: "Benrahma is an absolute disgrace. Hasn't cared about West Ham all season. Wouldn't even put him on the pitch."
While a fourth angry fan said: "Benrahma you moron, shouldn’t play again ffs."
A fifth fan said: "Pretty much assault from Benrahma."
West Ham boss David Moyes was in no mood to let Benrahma off the hook, either.
On the sending off, the Scot boss said: "It made it much more difficult that’s for sure... we were a goal down already at that point.
"I’ve had a look at it and I don’t think we can have any complaints. I wasn’t sure about the tackle on him, that might have been questionable.
"At the time I thought it was a hefty challenge on him.
"I’m not sure the referee moved in quickly enough to deal with the first challenge and that allowed something else to happen. There was one on Danny Ings as well that was not the best either.
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"I'm not taking anything away, I don't think his reaction was correct. It was a sending off.
"I've got no problem with tackling but the world we live in now, some of the decisions should be slightly different."