West Ham United’s official podcast, Iron Cast, is back for season two and this week, host Chris Scull and West Ham legend James Collins sat down with the most decorated player of the current Hammers squad, Emerson Palmieri.
As he edges closer to the 100-appearance mark in Claret and Blue, Emerson candidly reflects on life in east London, recruiting best friend Lucas Paquetá, getting lost in translation with former boss David Moyes, beating England at Wembley and that memorable night in Prague.
Speaking to co-hosts Scull and ‘Ginge’, Emerson takes a trip down memory lane. Looking back on his first season, where he and teammate Aaron Cresswell battled for the left-back position, Emerson recounts when he finally got the nod to start the UEFA Europa Conference League final at the hotel on the day of the fateful fixture.
“I found out I was playing at about 3pm at the hotel in the pre-match meeting,” he said. “In the final against Fiorentina, I felt more nervous because in my mind I think it’s the last one to complete the set of five. In football, you never know when you’ll get this opportunity, so I think for me it was the most important because it was the last one!”
An unforgettable night for the Club, our first European trophy in 43 years, 7 June 2023 was also an historic day for Emerson on a personal level, becoming the first and only player to have lifted the UEFA Europa League, Champions League, Super Cup, European Championship and Conference League.
Speaking on the celebrations upon returning to east London, he said: “I was surprised [with the amount of West Ham fans at the victory parade]. I did one like that with the national team, coming back to Rome. But not like the one with West Ham. The passion, you can see in the eyes of the fans. I really felt the passion of the West Ham fans. It was unbelievable.”
Since then, the 30-year-old full-back has become an indispensable figure in the Hammers starting XI, making 47 appearances last season, 43 of which were starts. A trend which he has continued this campaign, despite the numerous new arrivals, starting all eleven of West Ham’s Premier League games so far.
Consistency which he hopes will reward him with a return to the Italian international set-up and relive nights like the one at Wembley in 2021, the UEFA Euro 2020 showpiece. Despite going behind early on, Roberto Mancini’s Italy rallied and turned the game around, scoring in the second half and deservedly winning the game on penalties.
Reflecting on how he and his Italian teammates took the game to the hosts, Emerson said: “We spoke about a change of attitude at half-time. England had taken the lead after four or five minutes. Too early. I spoke a lot with Declan [Rice] about this. They dropped too early. They stopped playing. The ball was always coming to us. As a player, you can see… Harry Kane was in their half, no more high pressing. We need to take confidence from this. When you have 70 per cent of the ball, you start to create chances. We scored a goal, and after the game went to penalties and we won!"
You can check out the whole episode in the video player above, or you can download and subscribe to Iron Cast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and RSS here now!
