As world famous West Ham fan Michael Jackson once warbled in an overly saccharine and very weird song called 'Gone Too Soon': 

“Like A Rainbow Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye, Gone Too Soon.
“Shiny And Sparkly And Splendidly Bright, Here One Day, Gone One Night.”

Ahem! West Ham have a clutch of young chicks that they must wish had stayed at the club, players like Rio Ferdinand, Jermain Defoe, Frank Lampard, Glen Johnson, and Joe Cole. Indeed, if you brought all West Ham’s stars home to roost, they would have an extremely strong squad of English stars.

'If you brought all West Ham’s stars home to roost, they would have an extremely strong squad of English stars'


Arsene Wenger recently revealed similar opinions about ex-Arsenal bright thing David Bentley, saying that he had the quality to play for Arsenal, but he wouldn’t be a permanent fixture in the side. Many Arsenal fans I have spoken to were astounded when he left, but they aren’t exactly short of young talent at the Emirates.

So who are the players that you think your club let go too soon?

Few Everton fans would claim that their bullish young striker Wayne Rooney left at the right time, and they could have got far more mileage out of his notoriously brilliant skills. Who could forget the first goal of his professional career, tossing the ball over David Seaman like a vandal’s brick.

Is it naïve for us to expect the young charge that was nurtured through the youth team to have any filial loyalty for that club? Or are these youngsters just exhibiting the same cold ruthlessness shown by managers when they axe mere schoolboys from their squad for not being good enough – is this just the way of the world, young stars using these clubs as the starting lily pad as they leap from one club to the next?

Perhaps the view that players should hold more than a mere veneer of loyalty is as dated as the idea of dropping money in a player’s shoe when he has played well.

Whatever the case, which player do you miss most? Who do you hate to see in another team’s shirt? Which player was the one that got away?