West Ham captain Mark Noble has elaborated on his comments made last month that seemingly questioned Hammers fan’s football knowledge.
The 30 year old has had a poor season, and supporters have been heavily critical of his performances, but in an interview with the Evening Standard, Noble tried to qualify the comments that he made.
He says he was making a general point about new and old players. Fans are more excited by a new signing than by a player who has been at the club for a long time:
“What I was trying to say was that if we sign a player, everyone is buzzing. I’ve been here for 19 years, so West Ham fans are bored with seeing me. It’s like my wife, who changes the wallpaper every three years because she gets tired of it.”
He goes on to say that people naturally just don’t appreciate the defensive qualities of players, and tend to focus on the attacking talents, and flair of individuals:
“You can have a player who looks fantastic on the eye, does four step-overs but doesn’t track back and help out his left-back or his central midfielder.”
Noble used the example of Paul Pogba and a match he played for Juventus against Borussia Monchengladbach. A Youtube clip shows the Frenchman performing an extraordinary trick against now team mate Havard Nordtveit.
When the West Ham captain teased the Norwegian about it, he responded by saying that Pogba’s only contribution to the match was that piece of skill, and that he had one of the best games of his career against him; something that was never mentioned after the game.
