My ultimate West Ham XI

This week’s challenge is to pick my ultimate West Ham XI of all time- but I have a feeling mine might not be a very popular one. For my team, I’ve set myself the sensible rule that it will consist only of players I’ve seen live (my ‘all-time’). This narrows my selection field considerably as I’m both young(ish) and foreign(ish….well, just foreign). My first West Ham game was at home against Ipswich Town in March 2001 (we lost 0-1 but I was hooked) but I didn’t start attending regularly until 2004. For that reason my selection will be really rather modern, and may not include too many traditional greats!

Starting from the keepers- we’ve not had many over the past 12 years (which I think is a good thing) so I’m mainly picking between Shaka Hislop, Rob Green, and Jussi (well, and Henri Lansbury, who was pretty darn good.) I’m actually going to go with Jussi on this one. He’s competent, reliable, and had the most saves in the Premier League last season- hard to compete with!

Defence wise, my absolute favourite player ever is Tomas Repka. I realise this is not a popular choice- I have his name on the back of my West Ham shirt and recently another West Ham fan followed me onto a train carriage in Woking just to tell me he thought Repka was ‘wank.’ Thanks mate, good use of your time.

I adore him partially because he was a good defender, but also because I found his reckless attitude towards getting booked to be hugely enjoyable. I’m sure I remember seeing him being sent off before even touching a ball on one occasion. Maybe even on more than one occasion.

I’ll pop Winston Reid in there (that’s Winston Reid playing under Big Sam, mind, NOT under Avram Grant.) I’ll also grab Stuart Pearce – a strong defender, and full of determination and aggression (anyone who plays a half with a broken leg is always going to be a winner in my book), and I’ll finish the back four with Lucas Neill- unpopular at the very end, but a great defender and always put in a great performance for the Hammers.

In the middle of the pitch I’d have Matt Jarvis, Mark Noble, Scott Parker, and Valon Behrami. I always liked Noble and Parker playing together, and while I like Nolan, I think Noble and Parker were a stronger partnership. Jarvis and Behrami qualify for their great runs, positioning and crossing.

Up front – Paolo Di Canio and Carlos Tevez.  I mean, why not? Two recent legends, both of whom I got to see live. Could you imagine them upfront together? Who knows if they’d play well together, or get along, or have a massive punch-up on the pitch, but on paper my gosh would they score goals!

So if you were looking at an ultimate West Ham XI for the same period, who would you pop in there? Who did I miss out on- or who shouldn’t I have included? Would love to know, either below or tweet me @makingthemarrow