If you ask the average West Ham fan who’s followed the club for a bit about the names Paul Ince, Frank Lampard Jr., and Nigel Reo-Coker you’ll usually hear the word ‘Snake’ followed by a look of disgust with gritted teeth. These are the names from the 80’s, 90’s and early 00’s of people who have ‘betrayed’ the club by giving up the badge and forsaking club loyalty, to join another club that was portrayed as ‘better’ than West Ham.
Perhaps the player was excellent and moved on to another club when West Ham really needed them; perhaps the player was average but the way in which they left was disrespectful. Perhaps having the mentality of a family club, the abandonment of your post for something else seems like desertion of a family cause or war. Whatever it is, each decade has its traitor – if you look to the latter part of the 2010’s it would be Dimitri Payet, and the 2020’s would either be Marko Arnautovic or for less charitable fans Declan Rice.
Most fair-minded fans agree that if you leave you have to do it properly, with respect and not at a time that will hurt our performance. But not if you hold up a Manchester United jersey before you’ve left the club, or made statements to the press about the poor state of West Ham, or stated that you wanted to leave West Ham because you’re not happy with it, you have branded yourself a traitor in the public eye and will have a hard time ridding yourself of this moniker.
Inside the Dressing Room Chemistry
Recently Reo-Coker has opened up about his West Ham days on ‘Let’s Be Having You: The 00’s Football Podcast’ hosted by West Ham Fan Chris Scull. In his interview Nigel speaks of his time from 2004-2007 at West Ham emphasising that West Ham’s squad was the most unified he ever played with in his career, in the locker room, and outside of the training grounds, in personal life. There was a special chemistry that made the team have no fear when they came up against the bigger clubs.
In 2004, he came in as the youngest captain West Ham had at the time and led them to promotion back into the Premier league. Under Alan Pardew he served as the youngest captain in the FA Cup Final with a bitter last minute defeat. With West Ham’s impressive return to the Premier League and battle with the scousers, Reo-Coker said that the media started swirling his name around saying that he wanted to leave, though he never talked to any news’ writers.
The Pardew Breakdown and Racist Threats
Alan Pardew pulled Reo-Coker aside and told him he wouldn’t let him leave with the exception of a top four club. Reo-Coker told Pards’ that he wasn’t looking to move on, but would be open to talking if a top four club came in. Reo-Coker said when West Ham’s form dipped, he was often blamed as he was the captain, and the whirls of press speculation that he had nothing to do with, made fans uneasy and angry with him.
Receiving hate mail and racist threats during that season surprised him because with veterans like Teddy Sheringham and Jimmy Walker on that team, he’s surprised that fans would even think a negative attitude would be allowed in the dressing room or on the pitch. Eventually he found out that both Man United and Arsenal had come in for him, but Pardew had withheld that information, and that it wasn’t that he wanted to leave, but he didn’t respect that Pardew had gone against his word in a discussion.
The ‘Baby Bentley’ Scapegoat
When Pardew left, the situation with West Ham didn’t improve in results or the perception of Reo-Coker at West Ham. Alan Curbishley didn’t have control of the dressing room, and had the players playing in a style that wasn’t their own, scapegoating West Ham’s poor form in the media with a comment about ‘Baby Bentley’ players who had their heads turned by material fortunes and didn’t work hard or have the right mental attitude.
Reo-Coker said the only person who owned a Bentley was Anton Ferdinand, and that when Curbishley wanted something changed or communicated to him he wouldn’t even speak to them himself but communicate through Alex Dire. Reo-Coker believes the ‘Baby Bentley’ comment ‘tarnished everyone with the same brush’, and that he took extra heat because he was the captain from the fans.
The Great Escape and a Final Farewell
Eventually he and a few teammates confronted Curbishley and told him if they wanted to get back to winning ways, they should play in the style that suited the players and that after this the “Great Escape” of 2006-07 season with nine wins in 11 games was accomplished. At the end of the season, Reo-Coker was told that he wasn’t wanted at the club anymore, and decided it best to move on.
He received a personal letter from Sir Trevor Brooking that thanked him for his time, service and hard work, and said it meant the world to him. All throughout the interview Reo-Coker had nothing but positives to say about his time at West Ham, with exceptions for bad press painting him in a light that wasn’t true, and some poor communication with managers that he didn’t think was fair.
In the end his departure came at the hands of West Ham management, so the real question is: If the press hadn’t sold you on an idea that Nigel Reo-Coker was unhappy, wanted to leave, or that he was a ‘Baby Bentley’ player would you still be sore at him? Or would you see a young captain who brought us back to the Premier League, gave us the glory of the “Great Escape”, and the FA Cup Final that almost was a trophy? For me, I would take Sir Trev’s lead and applaud a player who made West Ham’s club in the early noughties a glorious ride to remember.
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