English Premier League - Player Profile: Mark Noble
Noble is a professional English football player, who currently plies his trade at West Ham United. Mark is famous for being a leader on the field for the hammers and has also been credited by United’s fans as being one of the most loyal players at the club. He usually plays as a central midfielder and specializes in scoring goals from his midfield position.
Noble joined West Ham United’s youth academy as a school boy after pulling off a short spell at Arsenal F.C and became the youngest player ever to feature in the reserve team side at just fifteen years of age. In July of 2003, Mark started training with West Ham’s senior team and made his debut in the League Cup for his childhood club in August of 2004, against Southend. He made his league debut in January of 2005, in a four goals to two away defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Former United manager, Alan Pardew described Noble as perhaps the best young player at West Ham as he won the young West Ham player of the year award for 2005. In the 2005-2006 season, West Ham made a comeback to the English Premier League but Noble found himself struggling for a first team place. However, he did manage to impress in games against giants such as Manchester United and Tottenham.
Noble was loaned off to Hull City due to the lack of first team appearances at the hammers. Mark only made five appearances until he suffered a back injury and came back to West Ham for treatment. When the young Englishman returned from his back injury in the summer of 2006, he agreed on a three month loan move to Ipswich Town. In the Championship with Ipswich, Noble made thirteen appearances and scored a single goal in a home win over Coventry City on 12th of September 2006.
The young midfielder came back to West Ham in January 2007 and scored his first goal for West Ham in a three nil win over Brighton and Hove Albion in the third round of F.A Cup. On 4th of March 2007, Noble scored his first premier league goal against Tottenham at Upton Park, which is West Ham’s home stadium. West Ham eventually lost the match by three goals to four; this sad loss prompted the young footballer to shed tears at the end of the match.
Mark earned his rightful place in West Ham’s starting lineup in the 2007-2008 season and nearly started all the league games when he was fit. He suffered a calf injury in November but recovered in time to come back in January of 2008, in his comeback game against Liverpool, he scored a last minute penalty kick to give Hammers a win over their English League rivals.
In the 2008-2009 season, Noble did not do well and his performances were not as consistent as they were in the 2007-2008 season, however in the 2009-2010 season the young midfielder helped West Ham sustain their Premier League status under Gianfranco Zola, as the famous London club pulled off a remarkable survival fight to stay in English football’s first division.
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