Hamer Bouazza. He's had a bit of a disruptive career hasn't he? Currently with his ninth club at the age of 27. He hasn't surpassed 100 games for any of those nine clubs, showing that he could be seen as 'not being commited to the cause'. Watford was where he enjoyed his best spell as Bouazza helped them to promotion to the Premier League. 83 games, 8 goals. It all went a bit down-hill from there.
He signed for Fulham in 2007 for £3m. Let's just say things didn't go according to plan there. After that he had successive loan spells at Charlton and Birmingham where he failed to cement a place in the first team. A brief spell in Turkey at Sivasspor, where he didn't even feature in a game. Says it all. Then he had short spells with Blackpool in 2009 and French outfit Arles-Avignon a year later. Then Millwall came calling.
He originally signed on loan from Arles-Avignon in the 2010/11 season. On his debut, he came off the bench and scored a cracking free-kick. That wasn't enough to save the Lions from slumping to a 3-2 home defeat by Middlesbrough. At the end of the season, he signed on a permanent basis for a minimal fee. The fee was believed to be less than £100,000. He had shown real promise in his time here and Millwall fans felt that he was an absolute bargain, baring in mind Fulham once paid £3m for his services.
In the 2011/12 season, Bouazza has found things difficult. He refused to travel for Millwall's trip to Middlesbrough on October 15th. Kenny Jackett then left him out of the side for over a month, his next appearance being the 3-2 home win against Doncaster on November 29th, where Bouazza came off the bench. Jackett's reasons for this were because 'Bouazza struggled with tracking back and helping out the team'. The manager felt that we needed a team player on the left-wing, something which I must admit Bouazza isn't.
So, why have I decided to write about Bouazza? Well yesterday, a story leaked from the Algerian press that Hamer Bouazza had said that he wants to quit Millwall at the end of the season. His reasons for this were because he wasn't getting along with the manager. He also said that 'he told the chairman and the manager that he should be walking into the team with his eyes closed'. That's not really the type of attitude we want, especially at a club like Millwall.
My take on Bouazza is that every club has a player like him. Slight attitude problem, isn't a team player. However, we need someone of Bouazza's quality. He may not be a consistent performer, but he is a game changer. He can do something remarkable to keep you or get you back into a game. He has quality in abundance but like I said, he doesn't show it often enough. This frustrates most Millwall fans as here we like players who give 110% every game.
I do see his point however. He's dissapointed about being left out of the team. He's our only real natural left-winger so he should be playing in every game. What does irritate me is his arrogance. No one should disrespect a club thats thrown his career a lifeline by saying 'I should walk into the team with my eyes closed'. These next few months will certainly be interesting. Bouazza has stated that he will continue to try hard and fight for his place whilst he is here.
Club officials are set to have their say on this matter tomorrow, their views will be reported in the local papers. My initial reactions to this story were that surely we won't see him in a Millwall shirt again after the things he has said. Hopefully it's all been mis-translated as after all, it was reported in Algeria. Bouazza is someone we should keep hold of, maybe if he gets a run of games he may change his mind. Who knows, only time will tell.
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