On Saturday morning I wrote a very marmite piece about our captain, which led to a mixture of criticism (in the comments) and agreement (via social media sites.) I was glad to see him score twice against Swansea City, but I had concerns about whether his form would continue or if he would be useless without his BFF Andy Carroll. I wrote that I wasn’t sure he should play when Carroll wasn’t on the pitch.
By Saturday afternoon my points had been completely and utterly nullified by Nolan’s second half performance at Villa and I have since had to apologise to most of Twitter and in person to my mate’s five-year-old son because: “the girl was wrong about Kevin Nolan.”
Isn’t hindsight a beautiful thing?
So, now I’m going to go ahead and do something fairly unheard of in the football world, particularly if your name begins with Howard and ends with Webb.
I’m going to admit I was wrong, and apologise.
I am sorry, Kevin. You’ve earned your place in the squad, and you sure as heck showed it during the second half on Saturday.
There were reasons as to why I had worries initially—reasons that Nolan is certainly aware of. Kevin himself has admitted he is currently in the process of paying back the fans for the “stupidity {he} suffered over the last month.” (ClaretAndHugh)
Prior to this season I was used to Kevin being our top scorer, and this year, in the absence of Carroll, we saw a mere two league goals (and two red cards) in five months— yet with the return of Andy we got two goals in just 30 minutes. That’s the Kevin Nolan I missed, and I wrongly thought he’d need Carroll around to keep his form.
However, after Nolan scored a further two goals in 30 minutes against Aston Villa and chicken-danced my opinion out of the water, I must say I’m absolutely delighted to admit to being wrong.
At the end of the day, I just want us to win games, and the players I want to see on the pitch are the ones who want to be there, the ones who are contributing strongly to the game, and Kevin Nolan is indeed looking the part—and I’m certainly rooting for him to keep his scoring going against Norwich on Tuesday.
So Kevin— I am indeed sorry, and don’t worry, if your form starts to dip again, I’ll just write another article slagging you off so you can go back to scoring two goals per game.
No need to thank me.
That is cool about time someone stood up and said that were wrong about the reviews they wrote about Kevin Nolan and about the Manager and a number of other West Ham players
We all love West Ham United me for 65 years thru good times and bad but please slagging off in Moderation. We are all human are we not and sometimes make mistakes even you I see boy Rav is of to QPR. His groin problem got over quickly didn’t it another little problem for the Manager
We weren’t angry, just disappointed
Yep Joe
I understand your anger and Kevin Nolan has apologised to the fans an his family’s ally see the and club. Now see what he does for the club for the remainder of the season. He is a good club Captain. We will never likes of Bobby Moore and in my humble opinion should have been knighted. Karen Brady could sort that out with her friendship of the Primeminister
Good luck Joe for the remainder of the season. I reckon we will finish 9th
Well done Emily. Many people post articles and make comments but NEVER have the guts to hold their hands up when they are wrong.
For the most part I’ve tried to keep away from the intense micro analysing of the team or most of the players (including Big Sam) as I have been aware that beyond the first teams 11 players, there was never sufficient quality to win as many games as we would like. The injured players start coming back from injury…. and hey presto the results start picking up.
There is far too much knee jerking reactions these days with views and ambitions firmly fixed on the short term by fans and media alike. It’s no surprise to me that Nolan & the team are looking like they have turned the corner.
This was always going to be our make or break season. If we get through this & remain in the Premiership, I see us moving onwards and upwards rather sharply.
Cat
You are so correct. The tweets have been nothing short of scandalous towards the team and the Manager. Everyone should get behind the team now yes even Emily
Im just relieved to c the boys playing good football even without andy carrell 3 great results in a row bring on Norwich coy
You don’t have to apologise, most of our fans have big mouths and spout absolute s**t about West Ham, the manager, team, players, owners and the Olympic Stadium.