Few people at West Ham United know Mark Noble and what he means to the Club as Kevin Keen.
An Academy of Football graduate himself, having joined the Hammers at the age of 16, Keen played 279 times in Claret and Blue before returning to the Club as Under-16s coach in 2002.
One of the players he inherited was a young Noble, who was already a standout performer and developing into the player that made nearly 550 first-team appearances.
The pair’s career paths then followed one another over the next decade as Keen was promoted to Under-18s coach, reserve-team coach, first-team coach and, following the departures of Alan Curbishley – who he had implored to give Noble a first-team opportunity in the spring of 2007 –Gianfranco Zola and Avram Grant, caretaker manager.
Now back at West Ham as Under-18s lead coach following coaching roles at Liverpool, West Bromwich Albion, Colchester United, Crystal Palace and Southend United, Keen has been reunited with Noble, with the Club captain spending much of his spare time mentoring young players and serving on the Academy’s technical board.
Over 20 years after first working together, the duo share a passion for West Ham United and a passion for developing the Club’s next generation of talent…
Kevin, when did you and Mark Noble’s paths first cross?
“I retired playing in 2002 and came back here to be Tony Carr’s assistant and I was lucky enough to have a lad called Mark Noble in my first Under-16s team, which was quite handy because that made us quite a good team!
“The first time I met him was at Little Heath, where we played our home games and still do now, and straight away, I could see he was a really, really talented player and he ended up not playing too many games for my Under-16s team as he got pushed up to play for the Under-18s under Tony.
“From there, our careers went together as my coaching career went with his playing career, from the Under-16s to the youth team to the reserves to the first team, so he couldn’t get rid of me!”
What was it that stood out about a schoolboy Mark Noble that made you and others so confident he would make it in the game?
“He had fantastic footballing understanding, vision and technical ability – they’d be the first three things that came into my head when talking about Mark. He was always extremely fit. He’s never really been particularly quick, but he had an amazing engine to get around the pitch as a midfield player which is massive.
“It’s his understanding of when to pass and how to pass, his appreciation of the opposition and his understanding of the game are second to none.
“He’s very much a winner, which is a massive part of being a professional football, as you’ve got to win everything, whether that be five-a-side or eleven-a-side on a Saturday morning. He always wanted to win at everything and that hunger alone, that hunger to do well for his Club always stood out from a really young age.”
You were slight of stature yourself and had a super career as a winger, but did you have any concerns that Mark’s own relatively small size and stature would hold him back?
“Personally, no, I don’t think so, as I think that hunger, desire, game understanding and technical ability, plus the fact that from a young age he always liked a tackle as well and had that aggressive side to his game stood him in good stead.
“The game isn’t as aggressive now, but it’s certainly more athletic and powerful than it was when I was playing 30 years ago, and even when Mark started, and he’s managed to keep up with those changes in trends, so all credit to him.”
What was Nobes like as a person, as we know he loves a bit of banter!
“He was so easy to coach. He and Chris Cohen, another standout player in that age-group, made that team really competitive.
“Yes, Mark was a joker, but when you got out on the pitch, that will to win and competitiveness always stood out.
“You need that character around the place as it stands you in good stead with your peers and older players and made him the captain he was then and has grown into.
“He was 15s and 16s captain, youth-team captain and now first-team captain and he carries that really, really well and I think people like Lucas Neill and Kevin Nolan – two fantastic captains of this Club – helped him become the leader he is now.”
Mark ‘played up’ age-groups throughout his Academy career and became the Club’s youngest-ever reserve-team player, before making his first-team debut under Alan Pardew aged 17 years and three months. How did he deal with facing bigger, stronger, faster opponents at that young age?
“He’s always played up, which is something West Ham has always been renowned for, and Mark made his reserve-team debut at 15 and first-team debut at 17.
“He always had that maturity and I go back again to his game understanding as he knew, for example, if a 6’2 bloke was coming towards him who was more powerful, stronger and quicker than him, he’d think ‘No problem’ and just pop it off and get the ball on the other side of him.
“That was always there, so being able to play up, it was that game knowledge and understanding that enabled him to play against people bigger and stronger than him.
“Even when he broke into the first team at the age of 17, he still had that physical deficiency, but that football brain that he’s got that got him through that.
“Even now, coming to the end of his career, when the pace of the game is probably quicker and he’s dipping in and out, it’s that football brain that makes him tick and he can still control the game. It’s his football brain that makes that work.”
We’re told you played a part in Mark being drafted into the team in March 2007 for the Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur that he scored in and that served as the catalyst for the Great Escape?
“I can definitely remember that with Alan Curbishley, it was the year of the miraculous escape, and I was on all season: ‘You've got to play Mark, you've got to play Mark’. And it got to that run at the end of the season and it was Mark, Anton [Ferdinand] and Bobby Zamora and I said ‘You've got to play them as these are the ones that are the lifeblood of the Club. They're the ones that will do absolutely anything to keep this Club in this division.
“And in the end, whether it was injury or whether it Curbs came around a little bit to my way of thinking, he put them in the team. And from there, that is when, for me, his confidence and his position in the first team was established, that little run at the end of that season, the miracle escape.
“Everyone said was [Carlos] Tevez, all that sort of thing. For me, it was Mark and Anton coming into the team, people who had come through the Academy that cared about the Club so much that they would do absolutely anything to make sure this Club didn't get relegated. And that for me was a massive moment for Mark and he became established in the team.”
He had already played under Alan Pardew, then struggled to get back into the side initially under Curbishley, then had a difficult loan spell at Hull City and some injuries, but he kept plugging away. Is that a sign of his character?
“Yeah, I always think, knowing him, he believed he would he would get there. It just takes a little bit of time sometimes and those little setbacks – he had a really quite bad back injury that kept him out for quite some time and his little spell on loan. All these things in his development means something that time out of the game when you've got your bad back is time for reflection.
“We speak about it all the time to the younger lads here – being injured, having a little setback can really, really kick you on. So, I think those moments are good moments for learning.”
Finally, how does it make you feel personally to have played such a big role in Mark’s career and helped to give him the tools that he developed into an established Premier League player and a true modern-day West Ham United legend?
“I think, whenever you have you've helped to play through and they have a career, hopefully it's West Ham, but sometimes it’s away from the club, there's a feeling that, as you have spent a lot of time on the training ground with someone, there is a feeling of pride.
“Mark is here all the time, we get on really well, I know his lad, and there's that closeness – and don't want to brag for West Ham – but I don't think there's many clubs in the country that get that closeness of people together, whether it's the chef, the coach, the coach driver, whoever around this place, there's that feeling of family.
“And I think there is a pride in seeing players go through to the first team. Around that time, we were we were so successful – Mark obviously is still here, with James Tomkins, Jack Collison even Junior Stanislas who is still playing at Bournemouth – and there was a really good feel around the place.
“I like to think going a little bit off piste that we're getting that now and hopefully over the next three or four years Mark will be here more often helping this next generation, that he can help create and have that same pride that I have in watching him play.”