Green Street Hammers
Fansided

Winston Reid deserves a West Ham testimonial

By Scott Johnson

Winston Reid, West Ham. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Winston Reid, West Ham. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Recently West Ham tweeted out that it’s been 10 years since Winston Reid signed for the club. Given what he has given the club, a testimonial must be on the cards.

In the past few years, West Ham has been lacking a consistent leader at the back, someone to really step up and control the backline. Winston Reid had been that player for the first 6 or 7 years of his Hammers career, taking the captains armband a number of times and leading by example the entire way. But injuries have changed the tide of his legacy.

For the last few years, Winston Reid has been perpetually injured. For the 17/18 season, it looked like he just had some niggles, playing 17 games (captain for 8 of them) and missing 5 before playing only 1 of the remaining 15 games due to a groin/knee injury. His most recent match in the Premier League was on the 3rd of March 2018 against Swansea, and although he has appeared on the bench a few times since, has not been deemed fit enough to take part.

More from Green Street Hammers - West Ham

But before the injuries, he proved himself a true West Ham icon. Signed for around 4m back in 2010, he spent a year mostly on the bench or out of the squad as the side got relegated. And it was in the championship that he found his feet and showed the club his importance. He played 28 regular season matches as well as all three of our playoff matches as we bounced straight back up. As we established ourselves back in the Premier League Reid became a regular presence at the heart of the defence, although there were signs of his injury issues as he missed 13 games with a sprained ankle in 13/14, 7 games in 14/15 with thigh issues and 12 games in 15/16 with hip issues.

As a defender, he was solid both in the air and on his feet, with and without the ball. There were times he was connected with moves to clubs like Arsenal, although injury concerns always got in the way of a potential move. But for a defender, he had a wonderful ability to come up with crucial goals for the club.

In our year in the championship he grabbed a goal and an assist in a 2-1 victory over Millwall, in the last league encounter we would have with them at the Boleyn ground. The same season a goal against Leicester in the penultimate game of the normal season kept us in with a chance of coming up automatically, although we had conceded a lot of ground in the 8 games he missed close to the end of the season where we drew 5 in a row (including at bottom club Doncaster) before losing to eventual division winners Reading.

SWANSEA, WALES – DECEMBER 26: Winston Reid of West Ham United celebrates scoring his team’s second goal with a header during the Premier League match between Swansea City and West Ham United at Liberty Stadium on December 26, 2016 in Swansea, Wales. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
SWANSEA, WALES – DECEMBER 26: Winston Reid of West Ham United celebrates scoring his team’s second goal with a header during the Premier League match between Swansea City and West Ham United at Liberty Stadium on December 26, 2016 in Swansea, Wales. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) /

In the Premier League, he scored the opening goal in the 3-0 victory over Spurs when Big Sam laughed at those who called him predictable and played a False 9 system with Ricardo Vaz Te and Mohamed Diame. And who can forget his contribution to the club’s history when on the final home game at the Boleyn he fought his way through the Manchester United defence to head home our third goal to seal victory? The goal wasn’t pretty, but summed up his determination and desire to make a difference at either end of the pitch.

Even once we had moved stadiums, and his appearances were becoming more sporadic due to injury, he came up with the goods. There was a wonderful left-footed effort from outside the box in the 94th minute against Sunderland in our first season at the London Stadium, which helped us break an awful streak without a win. The point is, Reid came up big when the club needed him, time and time again.

Next. Manuel Pellegrini’s three best games as West Ham manager. dark

So I think we can at least stretch to affording the Kiwi centreback a testimonial. It doesn’t happen too often in this modern footballing world of big money moves and chasing the glory you can. There are lots of reports saying he will leave the club permanently in the coming months, and the service he has given should be commemorated. We constantly ask that the players show as much pride as we do for the shirt, and he embodied that spirit. And I think it would be great to see West Ham take on New Zealand to celebrate everything he’s given to the club.