No, Robert Snodgrass isn’t leaving Aston Villa to go back to West Ham United

Speculation continues to grow about Villa winger Robert Snodgrass and a potential return to his parent club, West Ham United, reported by a number of sources including the ‘always right, not wrong and never liable’ Teamtalk (who whipped up the Sam Johnstone rumour out of thin air).

There is plenty right about the fact that West Ham want their man back. Their manager David Moyes is a big fan of his after all, but it simply isn’t happening - and no, it’s not just because TeamTalk have reported it.

Snodgrass isn’t going back to West Ham because it would represent a pretty embarrassing climb-down for their ownership group who have made it clear that Robert isn’t really the kind of player that they want at the club. The bridges have been burnt - and for once, it seems like Aston Villa hold all the cards.

Despite Moyes’ fondness of the Scottish winger, West Ham would have to essentially buy their own player (there’s no recall clause in Snoddy’s loan contract, so they’d have to entice Villa to cancel the loan). Unless there’s a decent fee, Villa won’t be parting ways with one of their in-form players. Would Snodgrass want to go back to West Ham? No. It’s Premier League football, but he’s made his opinions known.

What’s more, it’d represent awful business for the Hammers to stump up cash. They could simply buy a winger who actually wants to play for them!

It’d be a massive surprise to see all the egos involved with this deal come to an agreement, so for that reason we believe Snoddy is staying put.