During the course of eight years together at West Ham United, Mark Noble and Aaron Cresswell have shared a pitch for 207 matches - or 14,870 minutes, to be precise.
But the duo are often thick as thieves at Rush Green Training Ground, having developed a close friendship as teammates, but first and foremost friends, since Cresswell arrived in east London via Tranmere Rovers and Ipswich Town in the summer of 2014.
And with the legendary West Ham United captain set to hang up his boots on an 18-year playing career on Sunday, having already featured in his final home game against Manchester City last weekend, Cresswell has reflected fondly on a kinship which has yielded so many memorable moments down the past eight years.
How will it feel to see Mark hang up his boots at the end of the season?
“It will [be a sad occasion]. It'll be, from my point of view, a selfish point of view, I'll be devastated as well.
"I’ll be gutted, but not only just me, everyone around the training ground, yourselves [the media team], the training staff, the kit men, the physios, everyone - it's going to be a big mess for us all! Everything comes to an end and he's done it for a long time, and I'm sure he'll enjoy retirement.”
He likes a joke or two, but probably you, more than anyone at the Club, have borne the brunt of that for eight years!
“The thing is, a lot of people only see him when he's on the pitch, from the outside. To see him inside, on the training ground every day, he's got a great heart, and he also likes to joke as we just mentioned, so it’s hard for me to sit here and give him a bit of credit, because normally I'm just hammering him every day!
“He’s been a fantastic servant. What a great man, great player. Playing over 500 games for West Ham is some achievement.Obviously, there's only me and him left really from when I started at the Club [in 2014] – I think Angelo [Ogbonna] is not far behind me. We’ve shared a lot of memories on the pitch, and also off the pitch. It’s kind of emotional, thinking about it really, so there’s not long left to make the most of him.”
You’ve come from different cities - you from Liverpool and Nobes from London - but from similar backgrounds, so do you feel like you’ve just got that natural connection with him?
“Yeah, there's loads of similarities in our lives, growing up as you mentioned, the things you get up to and the problems you have in life… he’s certainly experienced all of them. For my part, certainly on a football pitch, a lot of people don't understand what actually happens behind the scenes – they just think players get paid X amount, everything's rosy, everything’s brilliant, ‘so get on with it’ type of thing.
“But when you've got someone to bounce off, who's experienced certain things that you've gone through, it brings you closer. Over the years, getting onto the pitch, we've had some great times and some great memories to keep for the rest of our lives.”
To play with someone for eight years is pretty rare…
“It’s not only that, it's 18 years he’s played for West Ham. To show that loyalty throughout the whole time is a credit to him, and you can clearly see everyone calls him Mr West Ham for a reason.
“To live and breathe it… and you know, obviously there’s Lenny, his boy, now coming through the youth ranks – he’ll never leave this Club! Although Nobes is hanging up his boots, he’ll never leave this Club.”
What are your first memories of Mark?
“I’d played against him in the Championship [for Ipswich in 2011/12]. We’d beaten them twice. I didn't know most of the West Ham players on a personal level, but I played against them twice that year. It was 5-1 [to Ipswich at Portman Road] and 1-0 at Boleyn Ground.
“When I came, you kind of judge characters from when you meet them, and you get a vision of what they're going to be like – and still to this day, he hasn't changed. I'd love to tell you what he said to me, but I can’t!”
What kind of a role does he play in the dressing room?
“Off the pitch, not a lot of people will see the stuff he’ll do at the training ground or the conversations that need to be had.
“He’s the one leading it, he's the one taking it. And when we've had the down times, fighting relegation, and things aren't going well, off the pitch he’s also the same: he's the first person to stand up and be counted and say: ‘No, look, I'm going to take the brunt of it, and this is what's happening, and this is how we're going to deal with it.’
“When you're in and around it, you need that one person to stand up and take everyone collectively and be the front of it all, and he’s certainly done that.”
And all his teammates say that he’s still one of the top five players in training every day…
“I don't think he quite gets the credit [as a player] he's deserved. I know, throughout his time, to get into that England squad, you look at players who were in his position, who he's up against… I think if here were eight years younger, now, for me, he’d have ten or 20 caps for England. I just think at the time when he was breaking through, when he was at the peak of his game, there were players like Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, and a lot of other players, so I think he was really unfortunate in that.
“But even in training now, he’s 35 and he doesn’t miss a day’s training. He’s never injured. His game speaks for his professionalism, his dedication and his commitment. Everything is first class.
“There’s a lot more to football than being quick, or being six foot six or whatever. He's a real football person, the way he thinks, the way he plays. He knows he's not blessed with pace or physical [attributes], but his football brain… you don’t get 500 games for West Ham for nothing.
“I think he could certainly go on to be a great coach or manager one day, but let’s see where he goes.”
We’ve seen all the pictures from the last game at Boleyn Ground, and you both played the whole game – what a night!
“I think the emotion going into that… I hadn't been here that long. I'd only been here a couple of years, but I knew what it meant to a lot of people, leaving, from West Ham fans, speaking to them, with the history behind the stadium…
“I remember the build-up to that week was… talking to Nobes about it, we just needed a result. We couldn’t go out with [a defeat]. That was on his mind, it was always on his mind.
“So of course, the pressure was building towards that game, so you felt the emotion going into it. And, of course, we got to close to the ground, and it felt like there were two- or three-hundred thousand fans outside the ground. Everyone was just going insane. The atmosphere was just incredible.
“The game actually got delayed. I think it was an hour, so you could see the build-up and the tension was there. And then obviously, we had a great start, went 1-0 up. Of course Man United went 2-1 up, and then Mick [Antonio] scored the second, and then obviously [Winston] Reidy got the winner with ten minutes to go.
“I remember seeing Nobes after it, and the relief more than anything… because he knew what it meant to the people, and to him and his family, and of course everyone else.
“That was most probably one of the most special memories I think I've shared with Nobes. That day was so emotional, and Nobes doing a speech after it... that was a fantastic night.”
And even this season, after the Manchester United game [a 2-1 defeat in which Noble missed a penalty] at London Stadium in September – but then the Manchester City game came along a month later [in the Carabao Cup] and he scored the first kick in the penalty shoot-out…
“A lot of people don’t see the character to take that kick against Man United. The game’s a massive one to be getting called upon, sitting on the bench. A lot of people would go: ‘I'm not even on a pitch, never mind come on and take a penalty with the last kick of the game to draw the game.”
“Again, he stood up, took accountability with what was at stake, and he stepped up and missed, but even speaking to him afterwards, the main thing that will have hurt him more would have been saying ‘no’ to the penalty. That sums his character up.
“[With him taking the first penalty in the shoot-out against Manchester City] that’s the kind of character he is. He won’t shy away from a challenge and I think he’s been like that throughout his whole career.”
But he’s never changed or been affected by it all, has he? He’s always been Nobes…
“He’s done really well in the game. He’s had a fantastic career. It doesn't matter what he achieves or what he gains, he’ll always be that little scally from Canning Town, and that’ll never change.”
