The work that Harry Redknapp and Tony Carr did to produce quality youngsters at West Ham United in the 1990s cannot be overstated.
Redknapp, after all, is on record as saying that West Ham United’s ‘Golden Generation’ of talent produced in the late 1990s and early 2000s would have won the Premier League if they had stayed together.
All of Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Michael Carrick and Joe Cole started their careers in east London but would go on to lift major honours elsewhere.
Our squad is set, but it’s not perfect – and exactly who is to blame for that?
Jermain Defoe and Glen Johnson came slightly later but also enjoyed huge success at other clubs.
Though keeping all of them may have been unrealistic, it’s still a sliding doors moment in the club’s history.
Though the West Ham academy continues to thrive to this day, it remains to be seen if any of their current talents match those who came before.
It was the departure of Lampard, however, that was perhaps the saddest.
Of all the talents to have emerged from the academy system back in those days, he should surely have been the one to make himself a legend given his family ties to the club.
Frank Lampard’s bitter exit from West Ham revisited
Lampard, of course, is the son of a former West Ham legend in the shape of Frank Lampard Sr.
Redknapp is his uncle too, so there was always likely to be suggestions of nepotism.
Still, and while Lampard clearly wasn’t the player that he’d eventually become at Chelsea, he did impress at times. It wasn’t all brilliant of course, but that is perhaps natural of a young player.
He scored 38 goals and registered 18 assists for West Ham, and it would have been fascinating to see what became of him in claret and blue.
Who would West Ham have to sign now for it to be as big of a shock as when we signed Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano? 😂
Please let us know how you felt about it at the time too! 👇
However, it all ended in tears and the wounds still haven’t healed. When Redknapp and his father left the club in 2001, Lampard was hugely upset about that and his agent claimed he never wanted to play for the Irons again.
Back in 2001, Steve Kutner said: “Frank does not see how he can ever play for West Ham again.
He has just seen his uncle Redknapp and father leave a club where they have spent a huge part of their lives and he is gutted.
“The circumstances surrounding it all have left a very bad taste in the mouth and Frank just doesn’t want to know any more.
“As far as he is concerned, the sooner he is out of West Ham the better.”
How Frank Lampard’s exit changed the course of West Ham history
Lampard has a great deal of respect for West Ham these days, though it’s understandable as to why Hammers fan would have taken a dim view on him following his £11million departure to Chelsea in 2001.
Clearly, playing for a club transformed by the millions of Roman Abramovich helped, but the fact that Lampard would go on to establish himself as one of the best players in Premier League history is fairly galling.
No matter how one feels about Lampard, there’s clearly no doubting his achievements.
Oh, how differently the landscape in the Premier League could look had he stayed. For better or for worse.
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