West Ham United midfielder Jack Collison is leaving the club this summer after spending the best part of a decade on their books, and he decided to compose an open letter to the club's fans which was then posted on the official club site. The letter, which is 2800 words long, details Collison's fondness for the club and the emotions he felt during his time as a Hammer. It also features one great anecdote about Italian maestro Gianfranco Zola on the training ground.
Collison said of Zola:
His first session I will never forget - we were playing a game of two-touch and, of course, he wanted to play. The ball was fired into him and with his first two touches, without thinking, he managed to swivel on a sixpence, nutmeg one of the lads and then dink Robert Green from 20 yards. Silence spread across the training pitch as the boys stood there in amazement, mouths on the floor. I think at this point the manager realised what he had done as the whole team gave our new Gaffer of 24 hours a round of applause.
Although chipping Rob Greene from 20 yards is nothing special, it does sound like something we really would have loved to see. The reaction sounded typically Zola as well:
Instead of lapping up the attention, the Gaffer seemed slightly embarrassed and gave a genuine apology to the boys. This showed the character of the man - an absolute wizard on the pitch and possibly the nicest man I have met to this day in football. He was different to any manager I had worked with as he seemed to care about everyone - even the young boys who were nowhere near it like myself.
What a man.
via WHUFC.com
