So Kevin Nolan has left West Ham by mutual consent after 4 years at the club. To many fans this is great news however it will sadden others. This article is a tribute to Kevin Nolan’s time at West Ham.
Nolan was signed from Newcastle for a reported £4 million in the summer of 2011 following West ham’s relegation from the Premier League. From day one, he began uniting a destroyed dressing room and this allowed West Ham to have a successful promotion campaign. We owe a lot to Kevin Nolan for his excellent captaining of the club particularly in the first season.
Nolan, on a personal level, enjoyed a strong campaign finishing with 12 goals with some great moments. Two particularly standout for me. Firstly his goal of the season contender which he scored against Derby in November 2011 showed the skill and goalscoring potential that Nolan brought to the team. It was a fantastic volley with brilliant technique.
The other standout moment for him was the Play-Off Final in which he played two big parts. Firstly, he provided the cross which led to Ricardo Vaz Te’s 87th minute winner and secondly, Captain Kev lifted his only trophy with West Ham on this day. A moment I’m sure he remembers fondly just like every other Hammers fan.
Moving on to our first season back in the Premier League. West Ham finished 10th after a strong campaign and Nolan found the net 10 times as he finished as our top scorer. His best game during the campaign actually came in the last match of the season when he scored a ‘perfect’ hat-trick against Reading. Although his best game was the last of the season, Nolan was influential throughout the season and his goals ensured that West Ham didn’t go straight back down again.
The 2013/14 season wasn’t as successful for West Ham as we struggled for large parts of the season. But it was that man again, Kevin Nolan, who changed things around with 5 goals in February 2014. The standout match was against Swansea which kicked off the run that saved us. Nolan scored a brace, linking up with Andy Carroll fantastically; something that we never saw again unfortunately. Nolan also scored an overhead kick to seal a 3-1 win against Southampton in the same month. This was one of my favourite Kevin Nolan goals for West Ham. Nolan finished the campaign with 7 goals, once again our top scorer.
Last season was not as successful for the skipper and it confirmed suspicions that he was past his best. He scored only one goal and remains on 99 career goals. After failing to impress in pre-season and not really making an impact in the first few Premier League games it was decided that Nolan should leave the club.
Kevin Nolan was a fantastic captain for West Ham and served us extremely well. Unfortunately, towards the end of his West Ham career Super Kev had abuse hurled at him from fans even when he hadn’t done anything wrong. I do think it was the right time for him to move on, for the club and for himself. We’d like to wish Nolan well in the future and we hope he finds a club quickly. May your chicken live on forever.
