Jose Fonte who recently joined West Ham from Southampton has admitted that playing against his former club was a difficult task for him.
Fonte played for Southampton from 2009 to 2016, serving as club captain and becoming a fan favorite. During the time, he helped Southampton gain promotion from League one to the Premier League. He left Southampton under rather bitter circumstances last month after handing the club a transfer request.
Fonte does maintain that it was rather difficult playing against his former club, however he remained as professional as possible.
The Daily Mail reports him as saying, “It was a strange experience coming back to Southampton, it was emotional, difficult, but in the end I can say a big thank you to everyone – to the West Ham supporters and my team-mates for helping me get through it.”
In the end, Fonte’s new club eventually claimed a comfortable 3-1 victory over his former club. Southampton new signing ManoloGabbiadini opened the scoring with an impressive goal, however goals from Andy Caroll, Pedro Obiang and Mark Noble completed the win for West Ham.