West Ham’s current longest serving player looks like he is out the door come January transfer window. Aaron Creswell joined the club back in 2014 from Ipswich Town, and has gone on to make 284 appearances and has scored 10 goals.
He’s so close to marking 10 years of loyalty but I think we may be saying farewell to him before he reaches double digits. Cresswell has been a great servant to the club and I have a lot of respect for players who stick to one club throughout their career.
Cresswell could easily have moved on to play for different teams but clearly wanted to stay. But now Emerson is here, he has pushed Cresswell to the bench. I used to rate Cresswell at Upton Park for sure. I thought the way he carried the ball forward was great, but over the past couple of seasons, he has not been the same.
He hasn’t been much of an attacking threat and I actually started to realise he passes the ball backwards a lot of the time which ends up killing the momentum of the attack. I think the replacement for Cresswell came at the right time. He was making the same mistakes every week and I was starting to get quite frustrated with how he was playing.
I’m not sure whether it was because he lacked confidence or the players he was coming up against were just a higher standard compared to him. We have to talk about his two red cards – one against Lyon and the next against Frankfurt.
First time is a mistake but the second time is a choice and he took that choice to take a red. Looking back, some would call it soft but I would just call it stupidity.
What annoys me the most about the red cards is he is such an experienced player and when you have a referee that is being very critical in how he wants the game to be played, you should know full well not to make these stupid challenges. Cresswell thought he would get away with it like you probably would in the Premier League.
These European games are very different to normal league and cup games in England with how strict they are with fouls. I’ve always said I won’t forgive Cresswell for his red cards in those matches, specifically the Frankfurt game. It’s making me angry even mentioning it now!
It should be said that Cresswell isn’t a dirty player. He only received one red card in the league which was a second yellow back in 2016/2017 season against Palace where we won 1-0 away. The best moment I can remember of Cresswell is probably being part of the 2015/2016 season at Upton Park.
A historic season and send off to the Boleyn. I remember that season every player in the squad had a great season and actually made the last season at our home the best I have seen. Cresswell will always be remembered as he played such a big part in that season. Not forgetting his 10 goals and 30 assists he has next to his name.
He also represented England three times in 2016/2017 which clearly shows when he was playing his best football. I do think that it is time to part ways, especially hearing that he did want to leave earlier in the summer. I will thank Cresswell for his loyalty and dedication to the club where he filled in as captain on a number of occasions but all good things must come to an end.
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