May 5th and The Ghost of Christmas Past!

Kevin in Manchester writes:

May 5th, the date pencilled in for Tony Carr's testimonial, could be a bitter sweet experience for all West Ham fans; actually who am I kidding, there will be no 'could' about it- it will be. When the graduates from the West Ham academy return to pay homage to England's greatest producer of top footballing talent it will not only be a fitting tribute to the man's greatness but a running, tackling, passing and shooting condemnation of a generation of mismanagement at West Ham - I'm not talking about the bloke in the track suit but the suits in the stand of course.

The inability and lack of vision that has dogged the stewardship of our club has made it inevitable that most players of international calibre we have produced have, more or less, been forced to leave West Ham to fulfil their potential and ambition, as unfortunately they will be in the future. I bear them no ill; not even Lampard, Defoe and Ince. The circumstances of their leaving may have lacked style, grace or generosity but in essence Cole, Carrick, Johnson, Ferdinand and Cottee all left for the same overarching reason: there was nothing to detain them at Upton Park. Of course if we finish in the bottom 3 come May 5th, bitter sweet won't come into - how about rage.

Any how here's the challenge: A first eleven and a subs bench of leavers. I don't know if Ince and Cottee will have the puff to make a game of it but I'll allow them in. Yes Defoe came from Charlton - but he went into our academy, and Terry was finished off at Chelsea but I'll allow them both, ditto Sol Campbell and Bobby Zamora. Selecting Beckham on the basis of his dad manning the turnstiles might be pushing it a bit though!