Mark Noble has found himself at the centre of attention today following his spat with Angelo Ogbonna towards the end of yesterday’s game.
But CandH follower, and one of Twitter’s most outspoken Irons, Fareham Hammer, reckons that’s small beer alongside the captain’s general performances and here he explains why he believes Noble is a big probem in our present situation.
By Fareham Hammer
I am NOT a Noble hater at all but he is a HUGE part of our present problems.
We have signed some good players but their confidence is shot ! It is not a case of signing six or seven players now Yes another striker probably on loan but we need someone in midfield like Songy ,someone who can set up things, organise the midfield and defence.
Someone who can shield the ball and know’s how to bring it forward !Captaincy wise Noble is a headless chicken and that’s unsettling to the whole team In game after game we are paying the price for playing him..
No-one should be in the least bit surprised that Rice’s form has dipped.He has had to carry Noble in game after game.
Noble offers no threat when going forward and no protection to the defence.When he does venture forward ,the opposition dispossess him and have a free run at goal.
They slice through us, like a knife through butter.They simply WALK past him No doubt he’s a great guy but you can’t pick a player based on sentiment !
The views expressed here are those of the blogger and do not necessarily reflect those of Claret and Hugh
I do agree, whilst he has been a good servant to the club I think his time has passed and should go for his coaching ticket leaving the space for young legs who can do the job you describe.
Even Mooro knew when to call it a day and I never saw him try to attack one of his on players
So true, so true.
And I blame Pellegrini for bringing us into this mess.
Fernandez, Obiang, Kouyate was replaced with Wilshere, Sanchez while relying on Noble.
We have the worst midfield in the league by miles, and that affect the defence and the attack.
With no imminent change we will be relegated. 7m a year my arse…
Always been a problem with West Ham – not run professionally and too much sentiment.
Playing below average players for far too long and handing out ridiculous contracts to the same.
Nobes wears his heart on his sleeve, but his time was up ages ago – same for
Snodgrass. Cresswell classic example – not the level of player we need but they extend his contract by a further two years – ridiculous !
Gold & Sully again – it’s the cheap option rather than buy better quality on higher wages.
Might totally backfire this season though and get us relegated.
He’s a poor captain. there’s more to the job than tossing the coin and talking to the ref.
100% agree. We need a manager strong enough to drop him. The most ineffective captain in the premiership. Thank you for your time at West Ham (apart from the last 3 years when you’ve mostly been below average) but you need to go Mark. You’ve become a mouthpiece for Gold and Sullivan to pacify the fans and a model for the Christmas jumpers in the club store. Your reaction to Ogbonna was a disgrace. If you truly love the club, (and I’m sure you do for £70k a week) retire now and carry on selling off the Christmas stock.
Noble is a club legend.
But is past his best in terms of starting.
Butt we haven’t addressed that for 3 years, so he still starts.
His role is the box to box midfielder.
But he can’t do box to box.
Sometimes he’s deeper than Rice.
Which messes up Rice’s positioning.
Great player for a late 20 mins or in injury crises.
But centre midfield requires far far more athletisism.
Still a bloody legend though.
He’s as frustrated as us fans at how crap the team’s playing and having to try to do the motivating as Pellegrini clearly can’t do it! it’s a bit embarrassing to watch but I sympathise with the bloke and it’s not surprising that his game has suffered like the rest of the team, they’re like a rudderless boat in a storm with zero leadership coming from the management team or owners
Agreed, saidnit for a while now he leaves us soo open in the middle, spends far to much time chasing the ball back to the keeper with no one covering him, to me that’s down to him not utilising himself effectively in the team. He should be sitting with rice and protecting weve already got 4 players going forwards to close down, unless you do it as a team move forward it’s never going to work and hes proved it time and again to me this season. Having said that obviously that’s what hes been asked to do bu the manager but as a team and club captain he should understand what the team needs more and that’s some one protecting that back line with rice, he is an headless chicken. We need some real leaders in there, that with ogbonna tells me mlre that he understands he is not capable of doing any more then what he is which is next to nothing, what ogbonna done to him is what he needs to start doing on the field or play to others, instead of accepting the constant poor passing and slack of attitude! A few years ago I see him have tomkins round the scruff of the neck, leading his team and making sure that when players lack of attitude and effort is not accepted. I dont see none of that from him any more or any one.
For me ogbonna was spot on for not allowing that to pass and i think he woukd have the back ling of a large majority of the fan base for that.
“Club legend my arse”
Utter drivel. How anyone can question Noble’s leadership qualities is beyond me.
Posts like this are just fuelling the minority of thick Hammers fans who like to scapegoat Noble.
Not his leadership being questioned
Sorry Spencer real leaders do not square up to their own players ever. Ogbonna is said to have called out Noble for a misplaced pass and sutely Noble should be the first person to hold his hand up and apologise rather than completely lose it with his own teammate. Yes his loyalty can’t be questioned but his football ability is nowhere near Premiership standard now. Time and again he gives the ball away and is out of position leaving the opposition to just slice through our midfield. To act like he did was disgraceful and he should be disciplined by the Club and step down as Captain.
I love that Noble is a West Ham through, but he has not been a premier league player for at least 3 seasons. We cannot be serious about the EPL playing Noble in the centre of the park. We obviosly needed to replace him but chase other positions.
I am really pleasantly surprised this article has been posted, I posted what a disgrace he was at Palace on another article and expected a lot of stick as he seems to be a guy who only has to pull on the shirt to get a 7+ outta 10 from most fans.
As a captain and a player he has been poor for a year or two in my view.
Noble is a big problem. Looks like he is running in treacle. His heart is claret and blue but his feet look like they are in wellies. Sanchez has good hair but that is all. Jack should be the man, but his body is obviously not up to it. Hope he can step up to the plate soon. We need someone John Moncur or Bondzo to kick a few people and get the team motivated .
And Tomaz at right back.
COYI. Supporter since 1963. Exasperation since 1980. Sorry forgot about the inter toto.
Totally passed his best can guarantee he will be booked for mistimed tackles every game. How he ever thought he was good enough for England compared to Lampard and Gerrard s beyond me. Problem is he is guaranteed a starting place every week and I can understand how other players could resent this. Step aside Mark your time has come.
They have no alternatives. Sanchez passes to the opposition with a carelessness that I can only admire. Bring back some young players on loan? NO-ONE is coming to a club at risk of relegation and so adrift they will not right themselves in time.
We will get spanked by LC and creep into the lower three.
Got to say, singling out Mark Noble from the current bunch is amazing. Let’s talk about Balbuena, who’s positioning is always suspect, and whose ability to clear is so so at best. Let’s talk about Anderson or Fornals, or Snodgrass, all who have a terrible ability to retain the ball, or find a teammate in a threatening position. And Lanzini, who was always overrated, but now seems a shadow of his best. How can Haller and Antonio possibly score a lot of goals if our hapless creative midfielders cannot pick a pass and provide balls into areas that will regularly hurt the opposition? So is Mark Noble the best central midfielder in the premier league? Of course not. But does he give 100% in every single game? You bet he does. I would always prefer a team full of Mark Nobles than a bunch of supposedly more skilled players who simply don’t give their all enough of the time. They and Pellegrini, and the owners, are why we are in another hole, not Mark Noble. COYI.
Mikey, I couldn’t agree with you more. There are so many problems at West Ham but he is not one of them.
A fish rots from the head down, as the saying goes, and all of us suffering supporters should look at the owners first. Incidentally, have they gone into a monastery over recent months while all about them is turning into pooh?
It has not gone unnoticed by me, and others I am sure, that Mr Gold gets all chirpy when we have the occasional good run, like at the start of this season, but he is now behaving like a Trappist monk.
He and his aged sidekick appointed Pellegrini, who is clearly living in the past as they are. The Chilean had success years ago and with a mainly better class of player: the game in the Premier League has moved on and requires more and more pace and athleticism.
He has failed to adapt and been allowed to sign players who were very good years ago but with their best years long behind them – I will give Wilshere, Yarmolenko and Nasri as examples.
All last season the team was crying out for legs in midfield yet that most obvious issue of all to most of us fans was not addressed. I for one can feel the pain of Nobes and Declan Rice when they perform to their best in a high proportion of games but know they are being undermined by not having runners around and in front of them.
So, it is a given that the recruitment has been misguided and reactive. Yet Pellegrini’s equally aged old mate Husillos somehow remains in his job too.
In any other industry the hiring of Sanchez alone would be enough to get you the heave-ho. I have read that the desperately limited midfielder is on £40,000 a week, yet even the manager who sanctioned his signing doesn’t trust him for more than 10 minutes at a time.
By the way, do Husillos and his underlings ever watch lower league football in this country, where there are promising talents waiting to be developed, or are they completely obsessed with deadbeats from overseas?
It has been obvious for so many weeks now that the owners should have acted and I suspect that Noble’s unsavoury spat with Ogbonna was a manifestation of his own frustration over the sad current state of affairs.
It is with a heavy tread that I shall make my usual four hour round trip to the game today. And, not for the first time, I will be unsure of how I want it to turn out. How sad is that?
Yet even if Pellegrini and his cronies are gone soon, as is the most likely, can we really be confident that the owners will get it right next time?
Whose voices do these non-football people listen to? It should be a trusted ex-player or two with a love of the club, but none of us know. After all, it is only our club – and the owners don’t want us to know much at all.
Ridiculous views really. Noble only has to have one poor game ( and all players do) and the knives come out. Yes, he is coming towards the end of his career at this level but, overall, we have played better with him than without for some time now.
The writer has no idea what role Ogbonna played in this latest “handbags” and I am not going to publicise it as I don’t think it wpuld do the club any good at all.
The only player that I have seen in the past 6 years who was worth the admission fee alone was Dmitri Payet,,,I assume he left because he could not play with inferior players who were never going to get any better….
I think the Board cannot recognise a good player….How many players do Hammers have who can kick with both feet….?
Noble was past it 5 years ago,not 3…has he ever kicked a ball with his left foot ,nahhh
Disgraceful article and headline. He’s one of our best players who trieshis heart out and has done for years, article should be removed. Nothing to do with noble we have problems all over the pitch.
Yeah I imagine you are right which is why they were both binned. SHUT UP