As he approaches the end of his West Ham United career, Mark Noble reflects on the character-building loan spells he had with Hull City and Ipswich Town early in his career…
After breaking into the West Ham United first-team squad as a teenager in August 2004, some people might have expected me to think I had made it, but I was never silly enough to think that because I’d played one senior match that I was a proper first-team player.
If I’d thought that, I might have stopped working as hard and stopped doing all the things that had earned me a debut in the first place, and my career could have gone in a completely different direction.
I played 21 games in 2004/05 – my age 17 season – including 13 in the Championship, and we ended the season by winning promotion via the Play-Offs.
However, it wasn’t as if I was starting every game and playing brilliantly. I had ups and downs like every young player does.
I can remember one game in January 2005 at home to Derby. Pards left me out of the starting lineup because I think he thought I needed a bit of a rest, but I was gutted as I’d started at Wolves the previous weekend.
Chris Powell, who was one of the most experienced members of the squad, put a Post-It note on my locker and it just said: ‘Always be ready’.
I thought ‘Ah yeah’ and Gavin Williams ended up getting injured inside ten minutes and I came on and played most of the game anyway and got Man of the Match.
So, what Powelly said was right and I always kept that message with me.
TO HULL AND BACK
After we won promotion to the Premier League in summer 2005, I thought I’d go on and make my mark in the top-flight.
I came on in the first game at home to Blackburn, which we won 3-1, then I started away at Spurs in the November when I had a famous tussle with the Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids, who really loved a tackle as much as I did!
I played a few more games before Christmas, but then I got injured and when I came back the boys were flying and I couldn’t get back in the team.
In early 2006, I spoke to Pards and he said he wanted me to go out and get some games, so I joined Hull City on loan in the February.
For whatever reason, it didn’t quite go as I’d hoped. I hurt my back on the second day in training and I remember being embarrassed and not wanting to say anything.
I spoke to Pards and said ‘My back is done’, but I think he thought I was making an excuse because I wanted to come home.
To be honest, that wasn’t the case and I wasn’t worried about being up there on my own. My mates came up to see me and Carly, my future wife, came up to see me.
Peter Taylor was the manager, who was also England U21s manager at the time, and he had my best interests at heart, but it just didn’t work out for me up there.
Loan spells are like that. Some work, some don’t, and that’s why it’s so important for clubs to do their research before sending young players out to get experience, because it needs to be in the right environment at the right club.
OUT ON THE TOWN
I went out on loan again at the start of the 2006/07 season, this time to Ipswich Town.
Jim Magilton, who had played in a similar position to me for Ipswich and Northern Ireland, was the manager and I loved playing under him.
We played some really good stuff and I made some really good friends up there, people like Billy Clarke, Gavin Williams and some other young lads who I am still in touch with now.
I had 13 games in the Championship and scored my first League goal against Coventry in the September, then, when I came back, we were really struggling and bottom of the Premier League.
Pards wanted me to go out on loan again, but I said ‘No’ because I thought we were short of midfielders – Christian Dailly was playing there ahead of me and I thought: ‘Why are you not playing me? I’m not going anywhere’.
That decision changed my life, really.
Anyway, Pards left in the December and Alan Curbishley came in as his replacement and I scored in the FA Cup for West Ham against Brighton, then got myself into the team in the Premier League in the March, Carlos Tevez set me up to score three goals and we went on to complete the Great Escape.
I had my loan spells, but I always wanted to play here for West Ham, and I knew I had what it takes to make it.