Retime

WEST HAM captain Mark Noble has revealed he sweeps the dressing room until it is ‘spotless’ after every away game to show respect to the staff. Noble, who has been described as a ‘second dad’ by team-mate Declan Rice, is a key figure at the East London club.
Noble has revealed he sweeps the dressing room after every away game out of respect to the staffCredit: NEWS GROUP
Rice describes Noble as a ‘second dad’Credit: GETTY IMAGES
Noble in action against Norwich City back in 2005Credit: GETTY IMAGES
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And being the captain of a side which has seen 12 academy players make their debut since David Moyes’ return in 2019, Noble likes to set an example for West Ham’s up and coming stars.
Noble – who made his West Ham debut in 2004 – revealed on Rio Ferdinand’s Vibe With FIVE that he sweeps and cleans the dressing room until it’s ‘spotless’ out of respect for the staff who would have to usually go in and pick up after them.
The Hammers hero said: “A lot of the foreign boys don’t get it. But every away game we go to now, or every away game we play, win, lose or draw, I sweep the changing room after the game so it’s spotless.
“And some of the boys are like ‘Mark, what are you doing?’
“I do it because Ri [Ferdinand], I think for me, if you go away to United right and they score in the last minute of the game, like they did last week [against West Ham].
“The staff that you know better than anyone, like at West Ham, it’s the staff that have worked there for 30-40 years, that go in our dressing room after and all the milkshakes are tidied up, the bottles are cleared, the grass is all swept, everything’s gone… It’s spotless.
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“They go ‘cor what a club West Ham is. They lost the game in the last minute, heartbroken, but still had enough respect to sweep the changing room after and leave it spotless.’
“But now when some of the young boys travel with us, they see me do it.
“So sometimes if I’ve done the press or I’m running outside, as I walk in the young boys have a broom sweeping the dressing room.
“That’s not because I’ve told them too, that’s because if they see me doing it, then why shouldn’t they do it.”
Noble’s playing career at West Ham is due to come to an emotional end at the end of the season.
But the midfielder hopes it isn’t the end of the road for him at his boyhood club entirely.
Noble hopes to move into a role behind the scenes.
He said last year: “The manager knows this club for me is where it all began and probably where it will finish.
“He’s got me in the changing room so if he needs me he knows I’m here but I’m going to enjoy my last little bit of time as a West Ham player.
“Hopefully in the future I see myself being in the background at West Ham, making decisions and helping the manager and having a role that sort of way.” More

LEEDS UNITED are staring relegation in the face.The Whites travel to Brentford knowing they have to better Burnley’s result at home to Newcastle on Sunday.

Both sides are stuck on 35 points going into the final weekend, and face going down just two years after their promotion.
The last time they were relegated in 2004, having established themselves as regulars in European competition, Leeds’ financial mismanagement was their downfall.
Stars such as Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Keane, Jonathan Woodgate and Olivier Dacourt had been sold off with a raft of loan signings depended upon in their fight for survival.
It all proved too much and Bolton smashed Eddie Gray’s men 4-1 at the Reebok on May 2, 2004, to effectively condemn Leeds to the Championship.
While there were still a number of familiar faces still at Elland Road from the earlier glory days, the team was a shadow of its former self.
Here, SunSport details the XI that day and where they are now.
GK: Paul Robinson
If Leeds fans wonder what might have been with their relegated side of 2003/04, one player who could have led a revival was Paul Robinson.
The academy product was promptly sold to Tottenham after the drop and became an England international, with 41 caps, and a Premier League mainstay for the following decade.
These days, the 42-year-old is a club ambassador for Spurs and occasional TV pundit.
Paul Robinson and Alan Smith were two major homegrown components of this Leeds teamCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
RB: Gary Kelly
As a true one-club man, Gary Kelly stuck with Leeds upon their arrival in the second-tier before retiring in 2007.
Seven years later, he made a pitch to become the Whites’ boss after Brian McDermott’s sacking – claiming he had “all the credentials” to succeed.
But the main focus of his efforts has been the Gary Kelly Cancer Support Centre, in Drogheda, Ireland, that has run since 2004 and was partly funded by the defender’s testimonial.
CB: Michael Duberry
Former Chelsea centre-back Michael Duberry was rarely a first-choice defender at Leeds but made most of his appearances in this relegation season.
Quickly shipped off to Stoke during the following campaign, he returned to the top-tier with Reading in 2006 and retired at the ripe age of 37.
‘Dubes’ now operates as a keynote speaker and runs an executive leadership training company, that aims “to develop excellence in leadership and management practices”.
Michael Duberry was consoled by a fan after the club’s relegation became official with the following week’s draw against CharltonCredit: Getty Images – Getty
CB: Steven Caldwell
After starting centre-back Zoumana Camara blasted the club for their financial mess, Newcastle loanee Steven Caldwell was handed a run in Gray’s side.
In a short spell in Yorkshire, the Scot made 13 appearances before heading off to play for the likes of Sunderland, Burnley and Toronto.
Having retired in Canada, Caldwell fancied staying put and was recently assistant coach for the national team until 2021.
LB: Ian Harte
A spell in Spain with Levante, before surprise switches to Sunderland and Blackpool, led to Irish set-piece wizard Ian Harte’s career being deemed over by many.
But a renaissance with Carlisle, Reading and Bournemouth reminded fans that he possessed one of the most lethal left foots English football has seen in recent history.
Now part of a talent agency with clients including Harry Winks and Frank Lampard, Harte is 44.
Ian Harte scored many famous goals for the WhitesCredit: Getty Images – Getty
RM: Jermaine Pennant
Few men have had anything like the career Jermaine Pennant has had since leaving Leeds.
Appearances for Stoke, Real Zaragoza, Pune City, Tampines Rovers and Billericay came after a Champions League win with Liverpool.
Pennant has also showed up on Celebrity Big Brother, Celebs Go Dating, and made headlines for his relationship with a glamour model… before recently considering a playing return with seventh-tier Redditch United.
CM: Dominic Matteo
Club captain Dominic Matteo was moved into midfield for Leeds’ relegation campaign and left for Blackburn the following summer.
His autobiography revealed huge gambling debts and he was declared bankrupt in 2015.
While doing TV pundit work, Matteo was diagnosed with a brain tumour in November of last year but he is now on the mend, at the age of 48.
Dominic Matteo (right) was an experienced focal point of the Leeds sideCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
CM: Stephen McPhail
As one of the many talented youngsters plucked from Irish football, Stephen McPhail was a real bright spot of their success in the early 2000s.
He went on to find a home in Cardiff but missed many months of action after being diagnosed with lymphoma in 2009, before retiring with Shamrock Rovers.
In 2016, he was appointed sporting director of the League of Ireland side.
LM: James Milner
Another member of the ‘what might have been’ selection from this line-up, Wortley-born Milner went on to become a heck of a player.
Leeds were forced to sell the midfielder the following July, at the age of just 18, to Newcastle.
But it was at Aston Villa where he truly progressed into a star player and he has won three Premier League titles with Manchester City and Liverpool. He may still add to that haul this season…
James Milner was just 16 when he made his Leeds debutCredit: Reuters
ST: Mark Viduka
Mark Viduka scored the opener on that fateful May afternoon before getting sent off and sparking Leeds’ collapse.
It would be his last appearance for the club, before a move to Middlesbrough.
The Aussie target man has spent his retirement back in Zagreb, where he played in the late 1990s, and owns a coffee shop – telling ESPN: “It’s great to do something different.”
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ST: Alan Smith
Another budding teenager of the 2003/04 Leeds side was Alan Smith, who certainly landed on his feet post-relegation.
The famous sight of the striker’s tears at the Reebok were of a Yorkshire-born lad seemingly desperate to become a one-club man.
Instead, he controversially signed for Manchester United but injury hit as he collected a single Premier League title. After retiring in 2018, he upped sticks and moved to Florida.
Alan Smith upset Leeds fans when heading to Old Trafford weeks after their dropCredit: PA:Press Association More

HARRY REDKNAPP once told a reporter to “F*** off” after being called a “Wheeler-dealer” in a TV interview – but it’s fair to say the former West Ham and Tottenham manager did have a nose for a bargain.Despite signing Paolo Di Canio for West Ham, Robbie Keane for Tottenham and Niko Kranjcar for three of the clubs he managed, not all of his signings worked out so well.
Harry Redknapp made a number of shocking signings as managerCredit: PA:Press Association
Redknapp, 75, revealed his worst transfers during his time in the hit show I’m a Celebrity in 2018.
Whilst there are a few names that might spring to mind including Paulo Futre, Bongani Khumalo and Titi Camara, it was two other West Ham signings that Redknapp deemed his worst.
Redknapp was manager of the Hammers from 1994 to 2001 and signed nearly 50 players during his time in East London.
Marco Boogers was signed by Redknapp for £800,000 from Sparta Rotterdam in 1995 after the manager was shown a video of him looking “different class.”
Marco Boogers is considered one of Harry Redknapp’s worst signings in footballCredit: Allsport – Getty
The Dutchman featured only four times for West Ham and did not start a single game.
He was sent off early in his Hammers career after a horrific challenge on Gary Neville at Old Trafford before going missing soon after.
Boogers failed to find the net in claret and blue and based on Redknapp’s comments, that is hardly surprising.
Redknapp said: “Right from the word go Boogers’ attitude stank.
“He was among the stragglers at the back whenever we went for a run, he didn’t want to work, he was lazy and the players all took an instant dislike to him.
“I suppose you could say he could play a bit, but certainly he was nowhere near as impressive as the video had made him out to be.
“He was declared ‘psychologically unfit for football’ – which only meant he’d persuaded a doctor to come up with some excuse why he couldn’t return – and disappeared somewhere back home.”
He added: “We eventually found him hiding out in a caravan in Holland and only got him back by reading him the riot act.
Florin Raducioiu is ranked as one of Harry Redknapp’s worst ever signingsCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
“But his attitude was no better when he returned and we got shot of him to Groningen in the Dutch league.”
The other man Redknapp wished he had never signed was Romanian striker Florin Raducioiu, who Redknapp bought from Espanyol for £1.5million in August 1996.
He had been impressed by his performances for Romania at Euro 96 where he scored his country’s only goal of the tournament.
Although initially impressed, it quickly became clear to Redknapp that the Romanian was not going to cut it.
He said: “I worked for a couple of hours with Raducioiu on the first day in training and I must admit he impressed me. He was a quality finisher and I really thought he’d be a success.
“But the moment we got into anything physical, he didn’t want to know.
“He just couldn’t face being tackled in any shape or form. Dicksy was anxious to get stuck in to him to see what he was made of, but Raducioiu made it clear that he wouldn’t be challenging for anything.”
Julian Dicks was keen to “get stuck in” to Raducuioiu according to RedknappCredit: PA:Empics Sport
He added: “In his first two friendlies, Raducioiu did nothing but moan about the rough treatment he was getting from opposition centre-halves.
“Don’t ask me to explain how a former world class player can suddenly become a fairy, but something had obviously happened to Raducioiu and he’d completely lost it.
“He’d been used to queuing for three hours in Bucharest for a loaf of bread and suddenly he was wearing a £28,000 watch. Perhaps the transition was too much for him.”
The Romanian only featured 11 times for West Ham and managed to score two goals but Redknapp was not the only one he struggled to convince.
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Harry Redknapp has revealed his worst two signingsCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Paulo Futre, another Redknapp flop, reportedly called him a “big girl” in a training ground confrontation.
Redknapp’s patience finally ran out when Raducuioiu failed to turn up for a League Cup tie at Stockport, which the Hammers went on to lose.
He said: “You can imagine my mood the next day when a friend rang me and told me the previous evening he’d spotted Raducioiu out shopping with his wife in the Harvey Nichols store in London.
“I knew then I had to get rid of him but it wasn’t easy.”
Raducioiu finally left Upton Park in January 1997, returning to Espanyol. More