OPINION
West Ham favourite Mark Noble is likely to be a victim of the club moving into a new era under Manuel Pellegrini based on his manager’s latest comments.
The experienced manager held his press conference ahead of his first Premier League game in charge of the London club on Friday and appeared to hint that Noble wouldn’t be a regular fixture of his team.
“Mark Noble is the captain of the team and, although I don’t know how many times he will be selected, every time he is selected he will be captain!” said Pellegrini, as quoted by the Hammers’ official site.
While the 31-year-old’s position as captain is safe, his place in the team clearly isn’t, as the new Hammers boss went out of his way to make it clear that the midfielder isn’t guaranteed to feature.
Noble who is affectionately known as ‘Mr West Ham (Source: club’s official site) is adored by Hammers supporters after being a loyal servant to the club.
The experienced midfielder has played a total of 435 times for the London side during his career and featured regularly last season as he appeared 33 times across all competitions.
However Noble would have been disappointed with his performances for the majority of the 2017/18 campaign as he struggled to deliver the high standard of performances that he normally does.
Although it’s worth noting that the midfielder excelled in the tail-end of last season particularly in the final league game against Everton as he submitted an exquisite display against the Toffees in order to show everyone that he was still a quality member of the Hammers’ squad.
Yet after signing so many new faces it’s clear that Pellegrini has to be ruthless when picking his best side and that means there might not be a place for the veteran performer in his regular line-up.
While it may be harsh on Noble to be a victim of a the club’s potential new era, the Hammers boss has to field the team who will give him the best chance of securing positive results.
