The past was yours but the future's mine

Harry advises Joe: "Life is hard enough when you belong here".

A month has now passed since West Ham confirmed their return to the Premier League and in that time the press have linked us with no fewer than 50 different players. The list includes a couple of Arsenal goalkeepers, several Senegalese players and half the Wolves team. It also includes five ex-Hammers. Certain names have stirred much excitement amongst some fans. As someone who would prefer that one of his favourite bands, The Stone Roses, had resisted the temptation of a comeback tour, there is no sentimental side to me that longs for the return of any ex-players.

I assume that the majority of supporters are united in an aversion to Nigel Reo-Coker ever wearing claret and blue again (unless he finally finds his natural level and signs for Scunthorpe). I for one am about as keen to see the Luftwaffe return to the East End as I am Mr Mediocre. According to the Daily Mail, Sam Allardyce is a fan of NRC but the club are put off by his £40,000-a-week wages. I am put off by the fact that he spent his last year at the club sulking like a baby.

Yossi Benayoun has also attracted some attention. He has been a bit-part player at several clubs since he left Upton Park in 2007. At the age of 32, I fear that a player whose greatest asset was his movement no longer has a great deal to offer.

Of those players rumoured to be on the verge of an Upton Park return, the one I would welcome back is James Collins. Collins was the unsung hero in 2007’s ‘Greatest Escape’ team and it is unsurprising that he has been a success at Aston Villa. Given that George McCartney is a Sunderland player again, I would have no objections to him returning for a third time, though possibly as back up rather than first-choice left back.

Injuries may have played their part, but Joe Cole has never come close to fulfilling the potential he had as a teenager. A decent season at Lille gives hope that he may yet resurrect his career but for Paddington-born Cole, now in his thirties, time is against him. The reality is that a return to West Ham just under ten years after he left would be seen as an admission of failure. West Ham may have a special place in his heart - in his autobiography Fat Frank contrasted his own contemptuous feelings towards West Ham with those of his then teammate - but Joey is a West End boy who supported Chelsea as a kid, and a return to E13 would not be the romantic homecoming for him that it would be for some supporters.

And yet I know that my opposition to the return of Joey probably puts me in a minority. My attitude to sentimental returns was recently summed up by Roberto Di Matteo who, when asked whether he would consider going back to West Brom, said: “In my life, I've gone back to an ex-girlfriend and it didn't work out.” On both levels, I can relate to Di Matteo on this one.

Of course, that’s not to say comebacks never work. Julian Dicks and Tony Cottee both had brilliant second spells with the club. But it’s worth questioning what motivates fans who long for Joe Cole to be back in claret and blue. My suspicion is that such fans yearn for the past and have never fully come to terms with the fact that a squad that in 2001 contained Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Jermaine Defoe, Michael Carrick and Glen Johnson, three years later comprised Adam Nowland, Neil Mellor, Kevin Horlock, Brian Deane and Wayne Quinn.

In a footballing context, it was a tragedy and what Glen Roeder did to this club should never be forgotten. It should also not be forgotten that Joe Cole publicly backed Roeder to be West Ham manager in 2001. I am not suggesting holding a grudge against a then young man who simply gave his opinion (albeit an incredibly poor one), but when things did inevitably go wrong, Cole was able to move on to better things. It’s you and I who out of blind loyalty made do with Championship football rather than Champions League football.

A mercifully brief spell in the Championship is behind us, and now is the time for optimism where we look forward, not backwards. Some things - like Mancunian indie bands who had one good album 20 years ago - belong to the past.

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