Add as preferred source on Google
The career of West Ham United legend Sir Trevor Brooking could have turned out so very differently had he joined Tottenham or Chelsea instead as a schoolboy, or if he had taken up Kevin Keegan’s advice and made the move to Hamburg.
Playing nearly 650 games in claret and blue between 1968 and 1984, Brooking undoubtedly makes up one quarter of a metaphorical West Ham United Mount Rushmore.
Yet, he is also one of a number of famous academy graduates who could have taken a very different path.
Have we left anyone out of our West Ham ACADEMY star XI?
Who do YOU think is the cream of the current youth team crop?
Sir Alex Ferguson was ‘desperate’ to sign Joe Cole for Manchester United before he made his Hammers debut. Frank Lampard trained at Arsenal before following in his father’s footsteps.
Now, speaking to West Ham Fan TV on their YouTube channel, Brooking reflects on the various times other clubs came calling be it before he established himself as a great of Upton Park or during.
Why Sir Trevor Brooking stayed at West Ham United
Brooking certainly did his legendary status no harm when he opted to stay at West Ham in 1978, following their relegation from the old first division.
England teammate and then-Ballon D’Or winner Kevin Keegan tried his best to lure Brooking to Germany, but with little success.
Photo by Tony Duffy/ Allsport UK/Getty Images
Hamburg, lest we forget, were a continental powerhouse at the time, too. European Cup winners in 1983, no less.
“To get relegated when it was my testimonial year was strange,” admits Brooking. “For me to say ‘cheerio’ to the club as we got relegated was a nonsense. I thought, ‘Right, let’s stay on.’ And so I stayed on!
“That next year, that’s when John Lyall took over and transformed it. He sorted out the defence. Suddenly, we were looking like a good time. By 1980, that FA Cup [winning] team was a better team than the one that won in ’75!
“Strangely enough, I had a couple of opportunities to go. Kevin Keegan, who I had a great understanding with, got signed up abroad by Hamburg. He rang me and said, ‘Do you fancy coming over to Hamburg?’
“But by then, I could see the change in West Ham. We’d sorted out the defence. We had [Phil] Parkes in goal, Ray Stewart at right-back, a young Alvin [Martin] coming in, Billy Bonds went from midfield into the back four, and then you had Frank Lampard [senior].
“That five was the best defence I played in front of. I thought, ‘We are going to have the best team we’ve had, there’s no point in leaving now.’ Luckily, it was the right decision. We got promotion and had a good two or three years.
“I packed up in ’84 thinking that it was well worth staying on!”
What would you sacrifice for FA Cup GLORY?
Surely not your Premier League status…
Brooking was wanted by Tottenham and Chelsea as a schoolboy
A two-time FA Cup winner, Brooking speaks just days out from West Ham facing Leeds in the competition’s quarter-finals. A place at Wembley will await the winner at Elland Road.
Captain Jarrod Bowen is dreaming of FA Cup glory in a claret and blue jersey. He would become the first West Ham skipper to lift the trophy since the aforementioned Billy Bonds in 1980, a game which was decided by a Brooking winner against London rivals Arsenal.
“Initially, I had quite a lot of clubs come around [and watch me], but West Ham hadn’t come. Spurs were in the running,” Brooking says to a chorus of light-hearted grumblings, looking back at his schoolboy days.
“The one I was leaning towards was Chelsea, because West Ham hadn’t come! So, I had about 13 clubs [interested in me].
“We had got into the Ilford Boys, we got through to the semi-finals of the equivalent of the FA Cup for them. We lost 3-2 and, unbeknownst to me that evening, Wally St Pier, who was the chief scout, had asked Ron Greenwood to go to that game to watch two players.
“One, Barry Simmons, a striker joining West Ham, and a player from the opposition.
“When I came home [from school], my mum said we had someone at the door, and it turned out to be Wally St Pier!
“Wally went through this rigmarole where he said, ‘I didn’t want you to think we weren’t interested, but we thought we’d wait until you’d gone out of [the tournament].’
“My mum said, ‘Well, I’m sorry Mr. St Pier, but that hasn’t stopped 13 other clubs coming around!’ Which went down well with Wally!
“I got the call that Ron Greenwood had watched me in the semi-final and wanted to see me over the weekend. Ron convinced me that it would be a great club and he thought I’d be a useful player. So I told the other clubs I was joining West Ham.”
“I joined them in ’65 for a two-year apprenticeship. Of course, then ’66 was the magical time. If you were a West Ham fan at that time, you’d say West Ham had just won the World Cup!”
Join Our Newsletter
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox