Seventeen years on, Mark Noble is still feeling the love.

After eight managers and 526 appearances, the biggest challenge for Mr West Ham - who celebrates his 34th birthday today - has been saying goodbye.

His open letter in March, confirming next season would be his last, sparked an outpouring of appreciation for the local boy-cum-legendary captain.

Explaining how the letter came about, he told Mirror Football: “I was around a table at the training ground with the press guys and we spent a lot of time writing it, changing it.

“I took it home, sat down at the kitchen table with my wife Carly and I told her: ‘Babe, I want to show you this before I release it in a couple of days.’

“I read it to her and she cried her eyes out. Carly's always said to me: ‘Mark, listen. You are going to miss it when you haven't got it’.

Mark Noble will soon call time on his West Ham career (
Image:
Offside via Getty Images)

“When you've been involved for 18 years you do think: ‘I’m looking forward to going on holiday and spending time with the kids.’

“But writing that statement was an eye opener for me.

“I had my best friends ringing me from work after they’d read it. One of them said: 'Mark, I’ve had to go to the back of the yard where I work and wipe me eyes!'”

Born in nearby Canning Town, Noble made his Hammers debut in 2004 against Southend United in the League Cup. He has now made 402 Premier League appearances - more than any other Hammers player - and could finish his final season playing Champions League football.

" Chelsea have been incredible. But for us, when the league shut down last season the club did all the right things.

"We came back and had a really successful end to the season. And then I believe we kicked on from there. We made some really good signings - signings that West Ham should be making.

"Players that work hard. Players that want to work for the badge. Players that don't earn incredible amounts of money, but play like they are. And we've progressed. So no matter how this season ends it's been a very successful season for West Ham.

Mark Noble has spent his whole career at the Hammers

"But me wanting to achieve the most for this football club. We've got to aim for Europe, for sure."

Noble's widespread respect stems from his impressive leadership. During last year’s pandemic, he and the players joined the board and manager David Moyes in taking wage deferrals.

Noble also donated £35,000 to help the vulnerable in nearby Basildon.

He is a key member of the Premier League captains group, Players Together, which quietly raised money for the NHS.

He ensures every new signing is supported and understands what it means to play for the east Londoners.

And Noble plays an active role in nurturing the Hammers’ next generation.

“I spend a lot of time in the Academy because my son’s there,” he said, “I know all the young players. I do one on ones with them, looking through their clips to see how they can get better.

“In our senior dressing room I've got 25 different egos, personalities and cultures.

The midfielder burst onto the scene as a youngster

“They look to me to fight their corner for them. After so many years you also get to know all the staff members, from the man that cuts the grass for us to train, to the woman that cleans and washes our plates up, to the commercial team.

“During the pandemic I was never, ever going to walk back into the dressing room or training ground knowing they’d taken some sort of pay cut or furlough with the players earning the money we are.

“I had so many phone calls with (vice-chairman) Karren Brady and she and the board were already of the same mind as me and the players. So I was so proud all the staff didn't have to worry about paying their rent or their mortgage.”

Noble is up alongside Terry, Gerrard, Giggs and Scholes as a one-club legends who played over 400 Premier League games.

There is something, however, of which he is even more proud.

“One of my greatest achievements in football is having eight or nine different managers at one football club appreciate me,” he said.

“It means means I wasn't loved by just one manager. I haven't played because I'm a West Ham fan or because I grew up at the club. You have to lace up your boots and prove yourself on the pitch every week - and I’ve done that.”

NOBLE ON...

The Super League: “The general realisation of it was that if we, say, finished top - we still wouldn't go into it. I mean, how does that work?

"For a club like West Ham, the dream and the pursuit of a Champions League spot - for any club, apart from the top six - is massive. Not only for the club. For the players, for the fans, for the staff.

“It’s what we dream of and we've dreamed of it now for more than a month because we're still in that position. So to be able to do that, and then all of a sudden, watch these other teams go off and play in a Super League and not be a part of that?

" Leicester have been fantastic for a few seasons now. They’ve been third or second in the Premier League and even won the Premier League. “They thought that they wouldn't go and play in that? I think that's why it's been knocked back so quickly.”

His 400th game against Leicester: “There was emotion after the game actually because we won because there was a lot of pressure and we were playing a very good team. But to be honest, I think I cried too much with the statement about my last year.

"I'm one of those people, I’m fine until I see someone else get emotional and I get emotional!"

Helping to shape West Ham’s next generation: “My aim is to maintain the morals and the ethics that the young kids should have. Also to look at the way the club should be portrayed in the media. Silly things like the way the young kids talk to people.

“You're not always going to be a Premier League footballer. You may not even go on to become a footballer. You may have to go to work. So leaving the Academy, you should be able to talk to people properly. Not be this footballer, stuck in a bubble for seven or eight years and then, all of a sudden, find that it's a ruthless world.”

On becoming a manager: “I’ve done none of my badges! I haven’t even done my Level 2 because I started playing in the first team and Alan Pardew told me not to worry about it.

On suggestions fine form is down to a lack of frustrated fans: “For me it’s not the same without them.

“It can be tough. And you've got to stand up, you've got to be a man and you've got to be counted. You've got to lace up your boots on a Saturday afternoon, knowing that you need to win to stay in the Premier League and you've got to go and do it. I've done that.”

West Ham United has announced its latest Official Partner, Grintafy. We sat down with one-Club man Mark Noble to discuss his affiliation with the Hammers and their positive season.