Club captain Mark Noble has welcomed the arrival ‘all round good guy’ Pablo Zabaleta to the club after the Argentine agreed to join the Hammers this summer after leaving Manchester City at the end of last season.
Zabaleta spent 9 trophy-clad seasons at Manchester City, but left the club after his contract expired in May, joining the Hammers on a free transfer as he looks for a new challenge in the Premier League.
An undoubtedly quality addition to Slaen Bilic’s squad with a proven track record in England’s top flight, Noble cannot wait to line-up alongside the former City man next season.
“He’s [Zabaleta] an all-round good fella,” Noble said speaking on whufc.com. “I’ve spoken to him on text already and he’s really keen to meet the lads in pre-season.”
Noble, who spent the latter part of last season on the sidelines due to undergoing hernia surgery, also touched upon his own fitness.
“I knew I had the hernias February time and me and the physios took it on ourselves not to say anything until the club was safe. It kept getting worse and worse and I went to see the surgeon before the Spurs game and he said ‘it’s urgent now, you need to have an operation.”
“Then we beat Spurs and were mathematically safe so it all worked out well.”
Noble begins pre-season with Zabaleta as his other team-mates on July 15th, before the club embark of their tour of Europe later in the month.
