West Ham’s No 1 legend named!

Heroes, as fans of Dimitri Payet have found out this month, can rise and fall!

But the true legends stand forever and thanks to best-selling fanzine and ClaretandHugh’s partners Blowing Bubbles, West Ham fans now know who has become their No 1 of all time!

The magazine’s expert panel assessed the contribution and achievements of all the greats through the club’s history from Syd Puddefoot (207 goals in 208 games between 1913 and 1933), through to World Cup-winning England captain Bobby Moore and the present day.

And after  much deliberation, the player they chose as the ultimate Iron  Billy Bonds. (full list is published below)

In 21 years as a player, rock-hard defender Bonds, now aged 70, made a record 799 first-team appearances, scoring 61 goals, and leading the team to FA Cup glory in 1975 and 1980, before returning for a spell as manager which saw the club promoted twice, record its longest-ever unbeaten run, and reach an FA Cup semi-final.

Blowing Bubbles editor David Blackmore said: “The club’s most gifted player? No. Its highest goalscorer. Absolutely not. Capped by England? Never. But the club’s greatest ever? Without a doubt.

“His statistics are remarkable by anyone’s standards, and he was as battling a player as you could ever see – Billy Bonds was the sort of player every fan would want in their side, he never took a step back.

“He really is Mr West Ham – no-one has made a contribution quite like him, and in 2013 he was the first person to receive the club’s Lifetime Achievement award, so it’s a surprise that he’s not yet been honoured at the London Stadium.”

“Bonzo” arrived from Charlton aged 20, for £49,500,  and was still playing for West Ham until three days short of his 42nd birthday.

David continued: “He always demanded the most from himself, and from team-mates too – famously he once thumped someone in the dressing room after a particularly bad defeat at Leeds because he felt the player hadn’t pulled his weight.

“He was prepared to get stuck in and take the cuts and bruises that came his way, and stayed loyal to the club through good times and bad – of which there were plenty.

“Player, captain, leader, winner, and then inspirational manager – Billy Bonds has been all these things and more to West Ham over the years, and he remains an absolute icon to fans to this day.

“Our top 40 included some of the very greatest achievers English football has ever seen – the dazzling maverick Paolo di Canio, the legend that is Bobby Moore, and Sir Trevor Brooking, whose career was so similar to Bonds’s but who seemed to receive wider recognition – but even these greats have to take their hats off to Billy Bonds.

“Loyal, courageous, honest and modest – William Arthur Bonds MBE embodies everything West Ham fans are most proud of about their club, and thoroughly deserves to be the club’s all-time greatest.”

Read the entire list as well as columns from Phil Parkes and George Parris and an exclusive interview with Ian Bishop in Blowing Bubbles’ January issue. Get your copy here > www.blowing–bubbles.co.uk/read–our–latest–issue.html

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Blowing Bubbles magazine’s top 10 all-time West Ham players

1) Billy Bonds

2) Bobby Moore

3) Sir Trevor Brooking

4) Vic Watson

5) Sir Geoff Hurst

6) Martin Peters

7) Alan Devonshire

8) Phil Parkes

9) Johnny Byrne

10) Tony Cottee