Is this West Ham ace actually that good?

West Ham United, the Academy of Football, has produced some world class players over the years, too many to list.  Unfortunately, in recent years, those players have decided to move onto ‘bigger’ clubs. One player has remained at the club through good and bad though, and remains our longest serving player.

However, I kind of find myself looking at Mark Noble through my claret and blue specs sometimes. I always want him in the team, no matter what game it is. In my eyes, he never had a bad game. West Ham supporters love it, a home grown player plying his trade in the heart of the midfield. But towards the end of last season, when Nobes was injured, something in my head changed a bit.

Noble picked up an injury, which kept him out of the final few games of the season. “How are we going to cope?”, “Who’s going to replace our man in midfield?” – as it turned out, Gary O’Neil stepped up, and performed admirably.

This throws doubt into my mind as to how good Noble really is. Sure, he can spray some passes around, and doesn’t mind getting stuck in, and of course, is Mr Reliable when it comes to the penalty spot. But the thing with Noble is that he drifts in and out of games. Some games we don’t even notice he is playing, and the game just passes him by.  How many times have you huffed and puffed when he takes a set piece and can’t even get it past the first man? Or he steps up to take a free kick just outside the box, and puts it over – how many goals has he scored direct from a free kick?

I have heard moans and groans from supporters, asking why Noble keeps getting overlooked for England. Well, let’s look who plays in his desired position – Michael Carrick. Is Noble better than Carrick? Well clearly not. The difference being that if Noble was better than him, why didn’t Man Utd spend £30m on Nobes instead?

I want to love him, I want him to be our best player, but sometimes, I do wonder if we would actually miss him…..