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Time has come for a new Hammers skipper

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Time has come for a new Hammers skipper

The time has come for a new Hammers skipper.

Kurt Zouma was always an odd choice to wear the armband as far as I was concerned following the Catgate stuff and with his knee injuries continually proving a problem

Also, it has to be said he isn’t the greatest talker in the team, although in fairness we are short of those all over.

Some do not consider the captaincy a major issue and I always remember the greatest one of all – Mooro – declaring, when I was ghost writing his column, that every player should consider himself a captain when on the pitch.

Mind you Bob was the most self effacing of guys and was probably making such a modest point after being described the best of all time by so many.

The reality is that a skipper needs to be seen as the leader of the team as was the case with him of course, Bonzo, Nobes and Declan among so many others. I am not sure Zouma is seen as such.

For me there are two players in the squad who are more than capable of bringing the drive required of a captain – James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez. I would find it hard to choose between them but as a former Premier League skipper at Southampton, JWP y gets my vote. His set piece assists are extraordinary and his aggressive attitude in midfield affects those around him so for me he has the edge.

I’m really not sure it is a great idea to have an injury-prone skipper who on the occasions when he is unavailable is replaced by Oggy who can’t command a regular place. Mooro was right about all players performing as skippers in one sense but given we can only have one I believe JWP is the best available to the manager.

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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

2 comments

  • Captrick says:

    It’s unrealistic to make a ‘first season’ player captain. Maybe change next season. I don’t think JWP is a good enough player to hold down a regular place, week after week. Next season, Alvarez could be THE man.

  • Hammeroo says:

    Maybe you can ask your readers to vote or nominate a Hammers captain?

    JWP is fine by me too.

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