I’ve seen loads of players with the natural ability to get to this level and play in the Premier League but who mentally can’t cope with what you have to do, especially once you get into the team. So to get there and stay there and to keep playing at that level, to overcome a bad game or a 3–0 loss, or getting abused by the fans, you have to be mentally able to cope with that – and not a lot of people can.
‘You speak to players now and a lot of them say, “You’ve got to get a move to earn the money, to get appreciated.” Obviously when I was young I wanted to earn money, like every young kid does when they’re a player, but I’ve always really enjoyed that fight, that challenge of saying, “They’ve bought him or him, but there’s no way he’s playing me out of the team!” I use it as motivation. I always think, “Right, it’s my spot and you’re not taking it.” You get some players out there and they don’t play and they’re fine with that, but I’ve never been able to enjoy not playing. To be honest, I’ve never really been able to enjoy life if I’m not enjoying football. It’s probably wrong, because at the end of the day it’s a job and I work for West Ham. It’s a great job, but if we lose on a Saturday everything’s affected for me. Everything. For a lot of players it doesn’t affect them, but it affects me – you just ask my wife. It affects the way you live, especially me. If I don’t play well or we get slaughtered, it’s horrible.’
Mark has been playing in the West Ham first team for ten years now, and the fact that he has maintained his place in the side under so many managers is testimony to how much each of them have rated him. His consistent performances make him one of the first names on the team sheet each week, and he has proved himself to be a quality player operating in one of the best leagues in the world. He has seen quite a lot of change in the game during his time at the club and believes that players like him may soon become a dying breed in the Premier League.
‘I talked to my teammate Aaron Cresswell last season and said that players like us – who are not really that fast, not really that strong, not really that tall and not really that athletic, but are good English footballers – we’ll be gone soon! The reason is that clubs can go and buy a foreign player for £2 million. If you look at me now, I’m twenty-nine years old and I might be worth, say, £8 million in the transfer market. So if a club were looking, would they spend that money on me or someone like me, or would they go abroad and get four players for the same price? There’s a much bigger pool for clubs to look at when they want a player now to the way things were even ten years ago. Probably ten or twenty years ago West Ham might have had a European scout. Now we’ve got scouts all around the world looking at players. No player who’s doing well goes unnoticed.’
Mark’s strong connection with the area the club are based in and with the fans has made him a firm favourite with them. But I know from personal experience that it isn’t always easy for local lads. I regularly used to go out for a meal with a couple of friends, Glen and Lee, who I first met when we were all apprentices. I was at West Ham, Glen was with Ipswich and Lee was at Chelsea. We’re still friends to this day, but when I was manager of West Ham and we were battling against relegation when I first took over, they told me they couldn’t go for one of our regular get-togethers because the restaurant we went to was in the heart of West Ham territory – and they knew the evening could be spoiled by me getting stick from fans! Mark has had to deal with that sort of thing throughout his career, but knows it goes with the territory.
‘I’ve got four or five close mates from school and they’re still mates now,’ he says. ‘When you’re brought up in the area then everyone you know is an East Ender and all their friends are from the East End as well. Sometimes someone will ask for twenty shirts to be signed and you can’t really say no, because they’re friends of friends – or you’ll get asked for twenty tickets for a match. Sometimes when it’s not gone right, and believe me there have been times at West Ham when it’s not gone right, you’ll see people in the street and they’ll be wanting to know what’s gone wrong and what’s going on at the club. I’ve always answered questions straight and I’ve never thought about not going somewhere because I might get pestered. It’s because people love their football so much that they want to know what’s happening. The game is so big now and every match in the Premier League is televised. So if you misplace a pass or make a mistake, that’s highlighted three or four times during the week.
‘I love being a footballer, and for me it’s a pride thing not a money thing. Some fans might see you lose 3–0 and think, “Look at the amount of money they’re on. I’d lose 3–0 every week for that amount!” But it’s not the money. If you care, like I do, it’s pride. I want to be able to walk down the high street and have fans say to me, “Well done, Mark. Good game on Saturday.” You want that instead of hearing them asking you what the hell is going on at the club and telling you to sort it out. It’s a pride thing, and the money doesn’t come into it for me. Of course, it’s great that I’ve got nice things now – and I’ve worked hard for them – but when we lose on a Saturday I don’t walk off thinking, “I get paid next month.” That doesn’t come into your mind. You think about the next game and you want to get a result from that game. You think about winning. You might lose four on the bounce, but then you get a win and you start thinking, “We’re all right!”
‘Once I’ve stopped playing and I look back at what I’ve achieved, I know I’ll be pleased. I’ve gone from being a little kid growing up in east London to being the West Ham player with the most Premier League appearances for the club, being involved in some big games for them like the two play-off finals, having a testimonial last season and captaining them in probably the biggest year in the club’s history as we move from Upton Park into the new stadium. I know I’ll be proud of what I did as a player.’
Chapter 3
Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard
The word ‘legend’ can be a bit overused in football, but when it came to looking at players who I felt had truly earned that status, three immediately sprang to mind – Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.
I always think that there has to be a very important ingredient in the character of any player who makes it to the top in the world of professional football. Talent can only get you so far in the game if you’re playing it at the very highest level. Of course it’s important if you are going to have a long career, but there is something else all the top players have – and without it they wouldn’t be half as successful as they are.
They have to have hunger.
I know a lot of people think players these days have it easy, that they get paid ridiculous amounts for kicking a ball around and for doing something fans can only dream of, but believe me, being a professional footballer in the Premier League is not easy. Yes, of course the rewards are vast, and they are fortunate to be playing in an era when the money in the game is so plentiful, but they can’t be held responsible for that. I’m sure that when I played in the 1970s and 1980s there were people saying the same sort of thing, because although the rewards were nothing like they are now, they would still have been huge in comparison with the wages of players thirty years earlier.
The fact is you don’t choose when you are born, and all you can do is get on and make the most of what’s on offer during your time. Everything has got bigger and bigger in the Premier League. When it first started twenty-four years ago people thought the money the league was getting from TV was incredible. The sums were vast and like nothing else that had been seen before. They got £25 million over three years back then. It’s now around £8 billion over three years for domestic and international TV. The figures are almost incomprehensible, and there is a worldwide hunger for the product that is the Premier League. Of course the players have benefitted, but you can’t blame them for saying yes to big contracts if they are on offer.
As a professional you play football and get paid for it, and you only get to do that in the first place because you have the ability to perform at a high level. There are various degrees of ability in our game, and there are some very good players who will never make that