West Ham Greatest XI

 

 

          In the 2003 book The Official West Ham United Dream Team, 500 fans were quizzed for who would be in their all time Hammers Eleven. The voting was restricted to players from the modern era.

 

Phil Parkes

Ray Stewart

 

Julian Dicks

 

Billy Bonds

 

Alvin Martin

 

Bobby Moore

Martin Peters

 

Trevor Brooking

 

Geoff Hurst

 

Paolo Di Canio

Alan Devonshire

 

 

           I would be hard pressed to argue with this assessment, as this would be pretty much most of the players, I would have picked.

 

 

                   For the role of goal keeper, with due deference to the talents of David James, Mervyn Day and Les Sealey and Bobby Ferguson, Parkes was possibly a class above, with only Ted Hufton being comparable, but I never did see Hufton so I do not know how good he was. Parkes would definitely have won far more international caps than he did, if he was born during this era.

 

 

Right back

 

Ray Stewart is the best right back I have seen play for West Ham, he was very good at taking penalties as well. He just edged out John Bond in my team for the right back slot.

 

 

Left back

Julian Dicks would just edge out Frank Lampard senior.

 

 

Centre backs

 

Bobby Moore is a certainty as he is just the best player to have ever won the claret shirt of West Ham, and his partner would be Alvin martin who was a great centre back who could also bring the ball forward with aplomb.

 

 

 

Midfield

I will definitely pick Alan Devonshire, 1 of my favourite West Ham players, Trevor Brooking; only the great Bobby Moore could touch him as a West ham player and Martin Peters. My fourth choice is Billy Bonds as he could also play competently as a centre back. I contemplated adding in his stead, John Moncur, as I thought he was a very skilful player. Players like Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, and Lampard did not stay too long at West ham to warrant a place in the team.

 

 

Strikers

I have also agreed with the 2 strikers chosen. Paolo Di Canio found his spiritual home at West Ham and rewarded them with some quite breathless performances and goals whilst Geoff Hurst was a fantastic servant for West Ham Football Club. They beat out such solid erstwhile competition like Paul Goddard, Tony Cottee, David Cross and Frank McAvennie.