Few players have had an impact on Mark Noble’s career like Teddy Sheringham.
Mr. West Ham still, to this day, talks about the guidance and advice the experienced forward imparted on him during their time together in Claret and Blue.
Sheringham featured 87 times for the Club during his three-year spell with his boyhood team, and quickly noticed a young midfielder, fresh from the Academy of Football, looking to make his mark on the first team.
As the iconic Club captain prepares to hang up his boots after 18 years at West Ham United, Sheringham recalls watching a teenage Noble in training and his transition into a regular first-team midfielder…
How did you first get to know Mark Noble?
When I came back to West Ham, Nobes was a fresh-faced, 17-year-old boy. I say fresh faced…it was like ‘surely this fella is 34 and is just coming to the end of his career!’
But he had that young body on him, the enthusiasm was just oozing out of him to join in every training session and show how good he was. He was a revelation.
I didn’t really know much about him. I hadn’t heard too much and no one had told me about him, or that he was going to join us. I think it was just sprung on me. I’d played a few games and I knew the players that were around, and then all of a sudden this young kid is on the block.
When he came on the scene, we had the likes of Hayden Mullins, Nigel Reo-Coker and Carl Fletcher all playing in midfield. They were decent players; very good players in their own right, but I can remember Nobes in his first training session. Alan Pardew was the manager. and he came in and he just ran the show from midfield. He received the ball beautifully He had an awareness around him on the pitch and just fed balls into the front line like a senior pro would.
I had a great relationship with Alan Pardew. He would lean on me every now and then, and occasionally ask what I think – not a lot but a bit more than what you would do for a young player.
We were walking off the training pitch after Mark had been with us for a couple of training sessions and he asked what I thought. I’d tell him ‘this boy has to be in the starting line-up, he is sensational’ and he agreed.
What struck you as different about Mark Noble?
Young players come on the scene, make mistakes, and need to learn their game. It was as if he’d been around the game for five years. He just had an amazing awareness on the pitch. I still watch him now and he knows where to be, his surroundings. You make space for yourself by having good awareness.
When I played under someone like Brian Clough, everyone used to be running about, all over the place, and he’d be shouting at them to stand still. Footballers are not really not to do that, especially as youngsters, but sometimes the best thing to do is to stand still and let everyone do the running. Mark does that so well. Just that little look over his shoulder and then he wants the ball. It was just that awareness from the very first very moment he trained with us.
Did he seem fazed by the step up to first team training?
There was nothing fazed about him at all. He looked like he had been there for the last five or six years. He knew whether to play it first time, or take a touch, and keep the game ticking over. It was like he’d been watching Roy Keane for 15 years and decided he was going to do it at West Ham.
Mark has talked about the role you’ve played in his career before. Why did you take on that role with him?
I really liked his character. I love players with enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is so infectious. I was always very enthusiastic as a young player. I knew what it was like to break onto the scene and have that excitement of becoming a professional and you can't wait to pit your wits against other players.
It was his enthusiasm and his know-how. His character was incredible. I’d like to put him alongside Gazza, and I know that might be a bit much because Gazza is the best sensation I’ve ever played with, but he had that aura around him – that know-how.
Mark has talked about the standards you set in training and during games. Was he receptive to those standards?
He was receptive, but I think he already knew it anyway. He just he just had that awareness that it needed to be done.
I think I think when you play with senior players, things rub off on you. I played the game in a very similar style, even though we're in very different positions. We weren't one to run past the fullback and whip a ball in. That would never be my game and it was never his game.
You have certain ways of playing the game. And sometimes you come across people that play the game very similarly. And he definitely did that.
What was it about Mark made him the sort of player you wanted in the team during a Premier League relegation battle?
It’s just an awareness that he has as a player. I've played with so many experienced midfield players. I've played at the top end and they know when to put in a hard challenge, they know when to calm the game down, they know when to speed the game up. And Mark had that, without a doubt. He had that from the first moment I saw him.
I don't know where he learned that from - Michael Carrick probably would have been a great player to for him to look up to around that time.
Sometimes you just know what to do on the football pitch. What is needed. Every now and again, it's needed in the Premier League to just ruffle someone's feathers, to get them sparked up, to get other players sparked up and to get the crowd going. And that's an awareness that you get in your experienced years. Not when you're 17-years-old, but Nobes did.
What is different about Mark now, in 2022, compared to when you met him in 2004?
When you’re the type of player he is, I don’t think much changes. He came on the scene as an experienced-type player already and he’s stayed that throughout his career. That’s the biggest compliment I can give him – that he hasn’t changed.
He’s so composed on the ball, comfortable on the ball. He knows how to get his team motivated. He’s a great captain, he is great fun to be around, and the enthusiasm still pours out of him. That’s what the West Ham fans have loved about him over all this time!
Are you still in touch with Mark?
Yeah I’m still in contact with him. I would say he probably look at me as if I was his dad, but I would say he’s more like a little brother from my point of view.
He’s got a great way about him and he has done since the first moments we all met him many years ago. He's remained the same character and still looks as ugly as ever!
How special is Mark to West Ham?
I think the West Ham fans can sum that up. They appreciate a top-class player and I could name them all. There are so many players that have excited West Ham fans in different ways and have hero status, and Mark goes into that category without a doubt. He is a proper leader of men.
As a West Ham United fan, how would you sum up what Mark Noble means to this Club?
It’s very unusual these days for a man to go all through his career at the same club. I know it does happen every now and again and it used to happen years ago, but now people are coming and going, and I think it’s absolutely fantastic that he's still here that he's never moved on.
He is a West Ham legend and that’s how it should remain.
