Ian Bishop was at West Ham United long enough – from the old First Division days through to the dawn of the Premier League – to see English football change forever before his eyes.
The Hammers cult hero joined from Manchester City back in 1989 under the stewardship of Lou Macari.
By the time Bishop bid a fond farewell to Upton Park nearly a decade later, multi-million signings were all the rage.
A revamped, re-badged top-flight had started to attract the best talent from across Europe too – even if Serie A was still the go-to destination for sporting superstars – while the wages taken home by the Premier League’s biggest names had grown enormously since the early days of the decade.
To quote the West Ham United legend himself, in an exclusive interview he once granted to Hammers News, the Premier League’s success brought ‘obvious differences’ to the footballing landscape.
Bishop recalls the time when both John Hartson and Paul Kitson arrived at Upton Park within hours of each other in February 1997. Arriving for much larger transfer fees – and for much bigger wages – than their long-serving teammates.
Ian Bishop explains the impact of West Ham United signing John Hartson and Paul Kitson
West Ham made Hartson their record signing, paying £5 million to London rivals Arsenal. Kitson, meanwhile, joined for a further £2.3 million from Newcastle.
While these days East London is viewed as something of a graveyard for talented goal-getters, Hartson and Kitson will forever be remembered as one of the finest forward partnerships in the club’s modern history.
Harry Redknapp, manager at the time, even went on to admit that West Ham would have dropped out of the top-flight if it wasn’t for the instant impact made by his two mid-season additions.
Starting as they meant to go on with a goal apiece in a thrilling 4-3 victory over Tottenham Hotspur, the free-scoring duo netted a thrilling 13 goals in the final 12 matches of that season.
Bishop, meanwhile, looks back on that combined £7.3 million acquisition as a moment which typified the growing financial power of English football.
“It was different. That was when the sort of bigger money came in as well, and [many of the existing West Ham players] were still stuck on our contracts,” he recalls.
” It was a little bit uncomfortable, to be honest with you, because somebody is getting 15 grand a week and the rest are getting three grand a week!
“And [the manager] more or less has to play them now because they got to justify to the chairman why they’re getting that much money.”
Harry Redknapp called Hartson one of his best Hammers signings
Fortunately, both Hartson and Kitson would prove to be money extremely well spent.
“Without them, we would certainly have gone down,” Redknapp would reflect, the Hammers losing 13 of their first 25 matches in 1996/97 but only three between late-February and May.
“[Hartson] would be right at the top of my list of all-time favourite players I have ever worked with. He’s got a heart of gold, a fantastic boy.”
Kitson went on to represent West Ham until joining Brighton and Hove Albion in 2022, on the back of loan spells at Charlton Athletic and Crystal Palace.
Hartson, meanwhile, netted 24 goals in his one and only full season at Upton Park. A tally he would end up beating twice as part of another iconic partnership with Henrik Larsson north of the border at Celtic.
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