West Ham loanee Conor Coventry could replace Mark Noble – ExWHUEmployee
West Ham United captain and club icon Mark Noble will hang up his boots at the end of this season after 18 years of first-team service to the club.
The 34-year-old has been nothing more than an emergency backup for David Moyes this season with Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek the preferred duo in the middle of the park.
Attentions are starting to turn to who might replace Noble in the Irons’ squad next season when he is no longer a player and Alex Kral set to leave the club too when his loan expires.
ExWHUemployee believes the ideal Noble replacement isn’t one that needs buying though as he names on-loan Irishman Conor Coventry as the one to step up to the senior team.
“He’s absolutely smashing it at MK Dons, which shows that the loan spell of Peterborough was just a bad club for him at the time,” he said on the West Ham Way podcast.
“I think Conor, hopefully, is showing to everyone that he deserves a chance next year to replace Kral or Noble, whoever it may be.”
The right time
It can be very difficult to judge when each individual player is ready for the step up to the first team and the vast majority are usually never ready, which is why they are released.
If West Ham believed Coventry wasn’t going to make it, he would have been sent packing himself by now so they must have faith in his ability.
Now he is 21 years of age, he has to be given the chance to prove himself at the top and that means throwing him into EFL Cup games and seeing how he copes with coming off the bench with minutes to go in the Premier League.
His form in League One with MK Dons has helped them to not only a playoff charge but an automatic promotion battle with his dynamic midfield performances.
Whether Moyes has the guts to put his trust in the youngster is the real question that only he will know the answer to but if he isn’t involved next season, he might as well get out while he can.
In other West Ham news, Moyes may tweak his system for the trip to Sevilla on Thursday as one player returns to fitness.