It was 3 July 2014 when a fresh-faced, 24-year-old left-back named Aaron Cresswell signed for West Ham United.
Exactly ten years on, the £3.75million the Hammers spent to bring the defender to east London from Ipswich Town has turned out to be one of the best transfer deals in the Club’s history.
Cresswell, who made his senior breakthrough at Tranmere Rovers after being released by Liverpool as a schoolboy, has made nearly 350 appearances for the Club in all competitions, played his part in successful relegation battles, helped the Irons secure European qualification on five occasions, scored some spectacular goals, won a Hammer of the Year award and lifted the UEFA Europa Conference League trophy.
A model professional, the now-34-year-old has become a husband and father to two children during his decade in London and, as he moves into his eleventh season at the Club, Cresswell looks back with pride and fondness on some unforgettable moments in Claret and Blue…
2014/15 – Winning Hammer of the Year
Big Sam signed me from Ipswich Town in July 2014 after I’d spent three seasons there in the Championship and had a great time.
I’d started out with Tranmere Rovers in League One and really enjoyed my time there, then moved down to Ipswich at the age of 21.
I made my debut against Tottenham Hotspur and although we lost that game we made a really good start to that season, had beaten Liverpool and Manchester City and were up in the top six when Newcastle came to Upton Park at the end of November.
Newcastle had won five games in a row, while we’d not won in three, but we were really solid and got the 1-0 win, with me scoring my first goal for the Club.
It was about ten minutes into the second half and Cheikhou Kouyaté tried a shot which wasn’t very good. I had carried my run on into the box and I tapped it past the goalkeeper. We kept a clean sheet too, so it couldn’t have been a better day.
I went on to play every Premier League game that season, scored a nice free-kick against Stoke in April and was voted Hammer of the Year by the supporters, which was amazing.
2015/16 – The final season at the Boleyn Ground
The final season at the Boleyn Ground was fantastic, really. We had some brilliant wins away at Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City, and we kept coming from a goal or two down to nick a positive result at places, too.
The final game at Upton Park against Man United was incredible. I hadn't been here that long, only a couple of years, but I knew what it meant to a lot of people, leaving that ground, from West Ham fans, speaking to them, with the history behind it.
I remember the build-up to that week was that we just needed a result. We couldn’t go out with a defeat.
The pressure was building towards that game and we all felt the emotion going into it. As we got close to the ground, it felt like there were two- or three-hundred thousand fans outside. The atmosphere was just incredible.
The game actually got delayed, and when it did kick-off we had a great start, went 1-0 up. Man United came back and took the lead, then Mick scored the equaliser then obviously Reidy got the winner with a few minutes to go.
After the game, it was just a sense of relief that we’d won, as we knew how much it meant to everyone. That will always be a really special memory.
2019/20 – Vital goals, a relegation battle and the COVID pandemic
The 2019/20 season was like no other in history with the COVID pandemic stopping football completely for a few months.
We had started the season with Manuel Pellegrini in charge, and I scored a nice free-kick in a home win over Manchester United in the September, but our form in the autumn was pretty awful. We went to Chelsea at the end of November without a win in seven and sitting just above the relegation zone.
With Łukasz Fabiański injured, Roberto had been having a tough time in goal, so Pellegrini picked Dave Martin for his debut. Dave was brilliant, saving everything and keeping a clean sheet. He was so emotional, playing for his boyhood Club, but he held it together and we mobbed him at the final whistle. We’re still in touch regularly now and Dave pops into Rush Green every now and then. He’s a top lad.
We also got the win, 1-0, as I managed to get a goal with my right foot!
I got into the box and the angle wasn’t great for a left-footer, so I cut inside their right-back, Reece James, and managed to shoot low past Kepa into the bottom right-hand corner. It was in front of the West Ham fans, too, which was great!
Unfortunately, it was a bit of a false dawn and we lost four of our next five league matches and Pellegrini left. David Moyes came in and we beat Bournemouth 4-0.
Results weren’t good overall, though, and we were still just above the bottom three when COVID hit and the Premier League was suspended in March 2020.
My wife and I had had our second child just before the pandemic and we were scared about what might happen if she caught it. Thankfully, she was fine and we got through it.
We returned to training in small groups, then they loosened the restrictions a bit and football kicked-off again in the June. We managed to get a big home win over Chelsea thanks to Yarma, then beat Norwich and Watford and that was enough to keep us up with a game to spare.
2020/21 – Goals, points, COVID and finishing sixth
The 2020/21 season was very strange. We finished sixth in the Premier League with a record-high in points and goals scored, but played virtually every game behind-closed-doors because of the COVID pandemic.
It was so, so weird playing at stadiums which were empty except for the staff. You could hear absolutely everything, and the noises would echo off all the seats.
When we went back for pre-season training in the summer of 2021, we had really bonded during the last few weeks of the previous season and that carried on into the new one.
Nobes was brilliant as captain – he’s one of my best mates in football and there’s nobody better to be around, whether things are going well or going badly – and he got us all together, playing for each other every single week.
We actually lost our first two Premier League games but, after that, we were brilliant and spent the entire second half of the season in the top-six. In the end, we finished sixth, but we could actually have finished higher and nobody could have complained if we’d qualified for the Champions League.
There were some brilliant performances from the lads that season – Tomáš Souček scored ten goals, Jarrod Bowen got eight, Declan Rice was fantastic in midfield, big Craig Dawson came into his own at the back, Vladimír Coufal was brilliant, and then Jesse Lingard came in on loan in January and was unstoppable.
We had 10,000 fans back at London Stadium on the final day of the season and beat Southampton 3-0 to qualify direct for the Europa League group stage. It was fantastic.
2021/22 and 2022/23 – European ups, downs and ups again!
Those two seasons were unforgettable for all of us at West Ham, going on two long runs in Europe and obviously winning the Europa Conference League in Prague last year.
The 2021/22 season was actually incredible, wasn’t it? We had full crowds back after COVID and they got to see us finish seventh in the Premier League, qualify for Europe again and of course we went all the way to the Europa League semi-finals.
I really enjoyed that run, despite what happened at the end. I started our wins over Dinamo Zagreb and Rapid Vienna, then got three assists in our two games against Genk, which we won and drew to pretty much secure our place in the knockout rounds.
I started both legs against Sevilla in the round of 16 and that night at London Stadium when Tom and Yarma scored was one I’ll remember forever. The noise was unreal and to beat a team which seemed to win the Europa League every year was fantastic.
Things then went a bit wrong for me personally, as first I was sent-off against Lyon in the home leg of the quarter-final. Thankfully the lads put in a brilliant performance in France and we got through, but then I was sent-off again early in the second leg of the semi-final against Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany.
The red cards were both shown for last-man fouls and I felt absolutely gutted after the second one, as I felt I had cost us a chance of getting to the final, at least partly. Football is so fast at this level and I had to make split-second decisions, and obviously if I had my time again I might have made different choices.
What I did know is that I was desperate for us to have another go at winning a European trophy.
I was 32 at the start of that season and, with Emerson joining the Club, I knew my opportunities to play might start to dry up a bit.
I did keep my place in the Premier League for most of the season and even wore the captain’s armband a couple of times at Viborg in Denmark in the Conference League and at Man City in the Premier League.
We were so good in Europe, winning 14 of our 15 games overall and deservedly went all the way to the final.
I played eight times overall in the Conference League and got a couple of assists – Daws headed in my corner at Silkeborg, and Jarrod got on the end of my cross with a brilliant header at home to AEK Larnaca – and it was just so good being part of a squad that was travelling all over the place and winning!
Our Premier League form wasn’t the best, so Europe really kept us positive and helped us stay up in the end, if I’m honest.
I was in and out of the team a bit in the spring and thankfully I was in it when we drew AZ Alkmaar in the semi-finals. I started both legs and we got through 3-1 on aggregate, with Pablo Fornals scoring that brilliant late winner in Holland.
I’d obviously have loved to have started the final against Fiorentina, but by then Emerson was in favour and the gaffer gave him the nod in Prague. He was brilliant that night, so you’d have to say the manager got it right!
I might not have got onto the pitch, but I was part of the squad and had played my part in getting us to the final, so I felt fully part of it all and absolutely loved celebrating on the pitch with my mates. To be out there with Nobes, Dec and the boys was just fantastic, it really was.
To lift a trophy and have a European winner’s medal have really topped off what have been an incredible ten years with West Ham.
I grew up in Liverpool, but I’ve lived down in London now for a decade and my kids have both been born and raised down here, so it’ll always be special and West Ham will always be my Club.
