Halfway through his 15th season as a first-team player at West Ham United, the Irons are in the Premier League’s top ten and, with a top-class manager in the dugout and top-class players on the pitch, have ambitions to rise even higher.
Manuel Pellegrini has stated repeatedly that he wants the Hammers to think as a big team and take aim at the top six.
Captain Mark Noble, who signed an extension to his contract until the summer of 2021 earlier this month, echoed the Chilean’s sentiments when speaking to the Official Programme for this Saturday’s visit of Watford to London Stadium.
If we can come in the top ten this year without getting a point from the first four games, we’ve done alright
Mark Noble
“We spoke in pre-season, and that’s been our aim,” Noble confirmed. “We started terribly by losing our first four games, but you look at someone like today’s visitors Watford, who won their first four games and we’re level on points in the table with them now.
“We’ve written those first four games off as a learning curve; new staff, new players. If we can come in the top ten this year without getting a point from the first four games, we’ve done alright.”
So, with the club’s immediate targets cleared up, what of Noble’s own future? With the end of his playing career in Claret and Blue perhaps only two-and-a-half years away, what does the lifelong Hammer plan to do next in his remarkable career?
“I hope that the club keeps moving in the right way, and hopefully I can be a part of that,” he said, with trademark East End optimism. “To be honest, I haven’t done my coaching badges. Football is so intense now that when it gets to the summer, I like to spend it with my kids and the wife. I’d love to be involved somewhere though.
“I think there’s no better person than me at this club to know the morals and ensure the foundations are kept with the young players and staff members.”
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