Well, the top 11 fitted snugly into a pretty impressive team:
Parkes; Stewart, Martin, Moore, Lampard; Peters, Bonds, Brooking, Devonshire; Hurst & Cottee
So who would be on the substitutes bench? My Hammer number 12 is going to be a controversial choice but I don't care. Yes he is hated now, yes his contribution to the West Ham cause is the subject of debate and some might say, derision, but as the best player we have produced since Trevor Brooking, I think he merits his place just outside the top 11. So, here goes, number twelve is Frank Lampard Junior.
You what? Above Di Canio? Above Pop Robson? Above Julian Dicks? What about the rule of winning something? Inconsistent, outrageous, disgraceful! Blah, blah, blah.
Knock him as much as you like but Lampard is class and always has been. Those who do knock him should remember that we sold him for a tidy £11m, as long ago as 2001. Many Chelsea fans were amazed by the size of the fee, feeling that we had stitched them up, but little did they know the incredible contribution Lampard would make for the Plastics. When you consider that Abromovitch could buy anybody he wants, it says so much for Lampard's ability that he has not only been a fixture but a genuine star amongst a galaxy of stars over almost a decade. Joe Cole? Good player, but he can't hold down a regular place in the Chelsea team can he? Deco? Looks tasty to me, but Lampard has always been picked ahead of him. Bollocks is a star in the German national team, but he soon found out who was boss in the Chelsea midfield didn't he? Only Essien and Makele compete with Lampard for status and achievement in the Chelsea midfield and it says everything about him that he would probably figure in an all time Chelsea Greats team, never mind West Ham! Essien, Hudson, Lampard and Cooke would be a midfield to compete with most! Up front? Drogba and Osgood. But back to West Ham!
Had we not sacked his uncle and dad, who knows what Frank might have achieved for West Ham. Yes he submitted a transfer request but wouldn't you in the circumstances? Before that defining disaster of a decision, ushering in the Roeder years, Lampard had clocked up 170 starts, scoring 38 goals at a rate not far off one in every four games - hugely impressive for a midfield kid. Remember, Lampard was still only 22 when we sold him! We are excited about Hines at the moment, raving about a "young kid", but Hines is only a year younger than Lampard was when he left us! Look at the excuses being made for Tomkins at the moment based around his age and inexperience - by the time he was Tomkins age, Lampard had already clocked up close to 100 first team appearances! The Lampard knockers complain about his inconsistency, but what kid isn't inconsistent? The truth is, he was a wonderfully precocious player at West Ham who has matured into the real deal at Chelsea. Imagine, for a moment, what we might have achieved with an 18-20 goal a season contribution from a mature Lampard! What a waste! In his last two seasons for us, when he was still in his early twenties, Frank chipped in with 23 goals from 86 games - playing for a team that wasn't exactly pushing for honours. That is a superb record for any midfielder, never mind for a kid playing in midfield.
Oh, and by the way, Frank did win something with us - the Inter Toto Cup, scoring in the second leg of the final in Metz, in a 3-1 victory. So stuff that in your pipe and smoke it!
6 comments:
My contradiction is that Frank jnr is undoubtably a great player but can you qualify as a West Ham great when your best football was not at the club and since leaving have constantly knocked the club it's fans and all
You may feel his criticism is justified but is still not the behaviour of someone that could be considered a greatest ever player
If you were doing a Chelsea blog I'd agree with you (no matter what my opinion of him as a man he is a superb footballer) but for West Ham not even in the top fifty
Find me a West Ham midfield player with a goalscoring ratio to compare with Frank's WHILST in the West Ham shirt; then find me one who was doing it aged 17-22! I reiterate that Frank left because his uncle and dad were sacked by the club. More bloody fool Brown and the Board.
We are famous as the Academy of Football. Frank is the fifth best product of that Academy. He merits his place at number 12 in my book. In fact, I was tempted to put him higher and would have done so had we won a proper pot with him in the team!
Some would argue the case for Tevez on the back of just 22 starts and 7 goals, some for Di Canio on the basis of just 137 starts and 51 goals, some for Rio on the back of 152 appearances, some for Pop Robson on the basis of 255 games and 104 goals. Only Robson made more appearances for West Ham and he was nowhere near international class.
Of course, I have omitted the obvious candidate from that list, but he is number 13, unlucky for any poor sod who went into a 50-50 tackle with him!
The board didn't sack Lampard but that's a technicality rumour has it that harry was sacked because he was getting a bigger rake off than TB and I still maitain Frank would never have developed into the player he is if he'd stayed at West Ham He was awful to start with at Chelski till he realised he had to pull his finger out and fight for his place there.....BUT at the end of the day it's your list so my opinion will only ever be an opinion with regard to your list but you're wrong, wrong I tell you
LOL I'm right, right I tell you! Look at his number of England caps! And if the only way Lampard could progress was to leave us, what does that say about us? I disagree! Brooking progressed because he stayed, Curbishley and Allen didn't because they left!
I don't care anymore I've altered it so it reads 52 on my screen
LOL 52? As high as that? You're going soft mate!
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