My West Ham Hero

As an 18 year old West Ham fan, there are very few players that I have ever looked up to. As a child my favourite player was Joe Cole, but he left very soon after I started taking an interest in West Ham, the same with Paolo Di Canio, Jermain Defoe and Michael Carrick, who were our stand out players between 2002 and 2004.

If truth be told, I have never really had a West Ham hero because my favourite players always leave the club. As a team the West Ham squad in the 2005/2006 season were heroes for me and for a lot of the Hammers faithful, luckily we didn’t have any pre-Madonna’s in our line up, the newly promoted West Ham gained a 9^th place finish as well as a superb cup run.

Even though we lost the FA Cup final, the players became heroes to a lot of us on that day in Cardiff, we were huge underdogs on the day and led for most of the game, then in the 90^th minute when a poor clearance by West Ham villain Lionel Scaloni, resulted in the Liverpool equaliser. Very rarely do sides come out on the day of a final and really push for the cup, 5 out of the last 7 finals have ended 1-0, but the Hammers came out fighting in 2006 and I think Liverpool were shell-shocked by our performance and were extremely lucky to win. Unfortunately that same side came out in the 2006/07 season, a bit too cocky after a good first season in the Premier League and were almost relegated, luckily some Carlos Tevez magic, towards the end of the season kept us in the league, he was a hero for many of us that season too.

Another player that as a youngster I could have called my hero was Nigel Reo-Coker, before he became too big for his boots in 2007 leaving us for Aston Villa (for purely financial reasons) there was talk of an England call-up for the central midfielder. Sadly, the fire and determination that we saw between 2004 and 2006 disappeared, luckily enough for the West Ham fans the Judas that is Nigel Reo-Coker has lost his way ever since then and is now playing for Vancouver in the MLS.

I think to be honest it says a lot about the stability of our club over the past decade that I struggle to think of a hero. I am hoping this can turn around in the next few years under Gold and Sullivan and the fact that we are moving into the Olympic stadium. Hopefully by the time the next generation of West Ham fans arrive, we will be playing European football with some world class players that are loyal to the club, as a realist I am still unsure this can happen, but at least the club is moving in the right direction.