That James Collins considered West Ham United legend Mark Noble to be the most ‘underrated’ player he shared a dressing room with at the Premier League outfit will come as little surprise.
No hypothetical XI of England’s best un-capped footballers is ever complete, after all, without a midfielder who played over 400 games in the top-flight while displaying the kind of consistency far more naturally-gifted footballers could only dream of.
Former Upton Park ace Gary O’Neil was ‘baffled’ by Mark Noble’s continued absence from the England picture, having spent two years alongside the captain-turned-sporting director in the Hammers engine room between 2011 and 2013.
James Collins, the towering centre-half who enjoyed two spells at West Ham United, cannot agree more readily.
The fact that Noble was already there when Collins arrived back in 2005 and eventually outlasted a man who donned the claret and blue shirt for the final time 13 years later speaks volumes about his remarkable longevity.
But, responding to a series of quickfire questions on West Ham’s official website, Noble is not the only former West Ham teammate who Collins considers to have been undervalued by the masses.
James Collins hails former West Ham United stars Matty Etherington and Danny Gabbidon
Collins considers Matty Etherington, the club’s go-to left-winger for much of his six-year spell during the noughties, to have been perhaps the closest thing to Ryan Giggs English football had to offer for a spell.
His one-time central defensive partner Danny Gabbidon, meanwhile, frequently demonstrated the defensive awareness and the technical qualities more frequently associated with Upton Park graduate Rio Ferdinand.
“I would say Mark Noble [was West Ham’s most underrated player but] there are a few,” Collins muses. “I put Matty Etherington in there as well. Probably at a time was the best left-winger in the league behind Giggsy, maybe.
“He probably should have played for England, Matty.
“Danny Gabbidon, a mate of mine, I have to put in there! Gabbs was probably the closest I had seen to a Rio Ferdinand. I know he won Hammer of the Year [in 2006] but outside of that he was a tremendous player.
“I learned a lot from Gabbs.”
Mark Noble was ‘Mr West Ham’ but never played for England
Both Etherington and Gabbidon were part of that West Ham team which took Liverpool all the way to penalties in the 2006 FA Cup final. Their hearts broken by Steven Gerrard’s iconic Millennium Stadium piledriver in the 91st minute.
Mark Noble would, at least, get to enjoy the Hammers’ 2023 Europa Conference League triumph at close quarters from his role as the club’s sporting director.
“We know him at West Ham as being ‘Mr West Ham’,” Collins said of a boyhood Hammers fanatic who lived the dream over two decades in a claret and blue jersey.
“We all knew how good a player he was but to never play for England is, for me, an absolute travesty.
“Me as a centre-half, playing behind him, seeing what he was doing in front of you… He was great to play alongside. Really underrated. I thought he was a really great player who should have played for England.”
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