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Nobes’ final season may become a real anti climax

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Mark Noble is in danger of just becoming a token Hammer in what could be an anti climatic final season.

After the Irons managed to strengthen the midfield in the summer transfer window with the signings of Alex Kral and Nikola Vlasic, Nobes looks to have fallen way down the pecking order under David Moyes.

Of course, he is still capable and Moyes will maintain that the veteran skipper still has a big role to play, especially as the season progresses and we, hopefully, reach the latter stages of cup competitions.

Noble, though, has thus far played just two minutes of Premier League football, coming on as a late sub against Leicester.

He is a legend, of course he is; he’s one of the very best servants we’ve ever had in east London, and there simply isn’t any replacing his status or leadership. They are vital cogs to making a squad tick.

But he’s in danger of being shuttled on in the final moments of matches, just to savour the roar of the crowd once more when we face Spurs, or Arsenal, or Manchester United, or in the Europa League.

There are too many options for him to be starting regularly, and he isn’t going to be getting more than 30 starts under his belt this season.

But we may have to get used to the sight of Mark, a club legend, trotting on for the final two minutes of a game, touching the ball a couple of times, and then applauding the fans at the final whistle.

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon