10 Former Players West Ham Could Do With Now

3. Frank Lampard

If one thought the fans might revolt to the idea of Jermain Defoe wearing the claret and blue strip again, the return of Frank Lampard is unthinkable. So much bad blood has been shared between the Chelsea€™s top goalscorer of all time and his boyhood club since breaking through at Upton Park in the mid-90s. He may have gone on to become one of the greatest midfielders of the modern era, playing over 850 club games and earning 106 caps for his country, but according to the clinical midfielder, he was bullied and heckled by sections of the West Ham faithful during his time at the club.

€œI remember when Joe Cole first came to Chelsea he would turn away in disappointment if West Ham lost. I would smile. That€™s how deeply I felt. I wanted West Ham to lose. Now I don€™t even look for their results.€ - Frank Lampard, August 2006.

West Ham supporters always levelled the fact that the Lampard boy was only in the side because his father was assistant to Hammers boss Harry Redknapp, which is a laughable concept now considering what he has achieved but at the time, it was eating away at the youngster who was attempting to make it at his boyhood team.

€œA section of the support believed I wasn€™t good enough for the starting line-up so I was put on the bench as some kind of favour. And they let me know this every time I moved to do a warm-up. It got to a stage when I thought about jacking in football altogether. I would rather work nine to five with my mates than take abuse from 30,000 people every other week.€ - Frank Lampard, August 2006.

Even the staunchest critic of Lampard understands that the midfielder has always been good enough for the club, and even now at 36 years old, the Manchester City player would still do a creditable job at the heart of the West Ham midfield. No money in the world could reunite these two feuding ex-lovers however, having spent the last 13 years exchanging the harshest of words.