Premier League duo chasing Hammers midfielder

There has been a rumour concerning Mark Noble doing the rounds in the last week or so. Apparently Newcastle United and Everton are interested in the West Ham academy graduate when the transfer window opens on January 1^st.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some truth to this, as I think Mark is at a level now where he would be a valuable asset for most Premier League sides, and dare I say it, his excellent passing ability would no doubt fit well into Everton with Roberto Martinez at the helm especially.

However I, like most Hammers, would imagine, would hope and would expect that any bid put forward would be met with short shrift by our owners, unless say a sum of £15 million plus was offered (which wouldn’t happen).

Whether the one club man would want to move on at this time is another matter, and I’m not entirely convinced that he would never be tempted with a move away from the Boleyn if he felt it would help further his career, despite his obvious love for West Ham. After all, he did stall for a while before signing his latest deal, a three year contract about a year ago.

I very much doubt he would actually ever come out in public and demand a transfer, or put in a transfer request, Jermain Defoe style, as he would have too much respect for the club. Therefore as things stand we have absolutely no reason to sell the midfield star. I think it would be a different story were we to be relegated this season, but I’m hopeful it won’t come to that.

I have to admit I was never really a Noble admirer up until the last couple of seasons under the management of Sam Allardyce. Before then, under the likes of Alan Curbishley, Gianfranco Zola and Avram Grant, he didn’t have a clear role in the side, which may have had something to do with the fact he was overshadowed to a certain extent by Scott Parker.

To me, he always had a halo sign over his head in the eyes of many supporters, who felt he could do no wrong, when in reality I believed he often went missing in games, particularly when things were going badly, and offered little in either attack or defence. Indeed, I wasn’t against us selling Noble in the summer of 2011 when Allardyce took over.

I am happy to say I have changed my mind now, and once Parker was sold, Noble has been given a proper role in the team, sitting in front of the back four, where he starts attacks with generally excellent ball distribution and most importantly, gets in the way of opposition attacks with vital interceptions and tackles.

His passion for the club is an obvious plus point too, and I think he has been much more of a leader on the pitch this season than Kevin Nolan. I would argue that he and Winston Reid have probably been our most important players over the last couple of seasons, and go as far to say that I can’t see us replacing Noble with a better holding midfielder at this moment in time. Frankly I don’t know where we would be without him this campaign.

That being said I don’t think he will ever be good enough to play one the international stage. He has too many weaknesses to his game such as a lack of pace and sometimes has a tendency to be rash in his decision-making, and too often he has made silly sliding tackles in dangerous areas to give away costly free kicks. I think the game against Everton earlier this season typified this.

In some ways however, the fact that a really big club is unlikely to come in for him probably helps us. We can probably persuade Noble to stay in the face of interest from clubs such as Everton, as long as we stay in the Premier League, with the Olympic Stadium move on the horizon, but not a Champions League team.

In summary then, it would be sheer madness to sell Noble at any point in the near future, and especially this January. He has been one of our few standout players this season, and it would be a huge blow to lose him. In truth I don’t think we have any great reason to worry unless we were to be relegated and I am 100% sure the club would block any move to get him.