Retired West Ham United hero Joe Cole remains close friends with current captain Mark Noble.
West Ham welcomed their skipper back into the fold at the weekend after his return from suspension.
But he was an unused substitute in the 4-0 home defeat to champions Manchester City.
That was perhaps more down to how crucial Noble will prove during a run of winnable fixtures from here into the new year.
One player they could certainly do with is former hero Joe Cole who famously started his career with West Ham amid much hype.
How West Ham and Noble could do with Cole now
The ‘conjurer’ as he was dubbed by then Hammers teammate Ian Wright went on to make 187 appearances for West Ham over two spells, scoring 18 goals.
Noble and Cole are close friends and played together during the latter’s second spell in East London.
It seems they like to wind each other up too judging by comments from Noble in his latest Evening Standard column.
‘I’ll never forget that’
Noble lifted the lid on their close relationship and even revealed why Cole has been ribbing him about his wife.
“I see him quite a lot but he might not be that happy with me this week,” Noble said in the Evening Standard.
“We were supposed to go out for dinner but I had to cancel.
“I remember playing an under-14s game at Chadwell Heath and the first team were training there.
Cole ribbed Noble about his wife
“He walked over and was watching our game.
“I remember I did a bit of skill and I looked over at him. He was clapping — and I’ll never forget that.
“He always says my wife Carly had posters of him up on her wall!
“In your dreams.”
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