As the years have passed, English football has evolved into a global business. Since the advent of the Premiership and dedicated sports channels, more and more money has been ploughed into the game meaning that failure and relegation is not an option. With clubs’ owners needing deeper pockets, often more extravagant names have been pushed through the fast-revolving gates of our clubs. Whereas in the seventies and eighties we’d be used to seeing a ‘John’ or a ‘Dave’ pull on the claret and blue, it was a sign of the sudden progress that saw West Ham have three ‘Paulo’s’ in the late nineties.
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Paulo Futre
Paulo Futre signed on a free from AC Milan in 1996. A player who had already achieved much, Futre had started to enter the journeyman years of his career. Harry Redknapp, showing his usual unbounding enthusiasm, tipped Futre to be a player that would excite West Ham fans and light up the Premiership. To be fair, his credentials suggested that this was possible, and in a 2-1 victory over Southampton he showed flashes of brilliance and genius. Enough for me to have his name on my shirt.
Unfortunately though, as good as his ability and his footballing brain were, his knees just weren’t up to it. Failing to score in ten appearances, Paulo is probably best known at West Ham for demanding the squad number ten from John Moncur on the day of a game against Arsenal.
Paulo Alves
A fellow ‘Portugueezer’ like Futre, Paulo Alves signed on loan to West Ham from Sporting Lisbon. Making only four appearances, all as a substitute, Paulo failed to catch the eye of Harry, despite having played successfully at international level. Good in the air, Alves failed to hit the net for West Ham and soon went back to Lisbon after seeing his chances limited, behind the more impressive John Hartson.
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Paulo Wanchope
Now there’s a name many West Ham fans won’t forget. Remembered for his ability to make the simplest skills look difficult and vice-versa, it’s easy to forget that Wanchope only lasted one season at West Ham. In this time, he struck fifteen goals in all competitions, his first coming in the away Intertoto Cup tie against Dutch side Heerenveen. For me, it’s difficult to know how to describe him. Was his first touch great? Not really. Did he have a killer touch in front of goal? Yes. So, whilst you can argue he wasn’t the most blessed skill-wise, you can’t really fault his goal-scoring return for us. It must also be noted, the combination he had with Paolo Di Canio did see some outstanding link-up play between the two.
And so there’s my quick trip down memory lane. It only really came to me the other day on Twitter as I got annoyed at the West Ham fans supporting and getting behind Paulo di Canio. Yes, we had three strikers called Paulo, but please don’t mix them up with PAOLO – spell it right!
But who knows, one day maybe we’ll be talking about our three strikers called Marouane!
Peace out
Smudgy
@TheRobTaylor32
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How can you miss out Di Canio?
Because it’s PAOLO not Paulo
Glad I wasn’t the only one to splash out on a Futre shirt after that Southampton match Could have been a great player for West Ham if he could have got fit.