In honour of Frank Lampard bringing the curtain down on his glittering 21-year career, today we felt it apt to share one of the most memorable moments of his two decades in the game.
We could have gone for his Premier League title sealing brace at the Reebok Stadium in 2005, his controversially unawarded goal against Germany during the 2010 World Cup or perhaps his two goal performance against Aston Villa in 2013 when he broke Bobby Tambling's record to become Chelsea's all time leading goal scorer.
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Instead, we decided to go with the time a teenage Lampard, dodgy haircut and jumper and all, was defended at a West Ham fans forum by his uncle and then West Ham manager, Harry Redknapp.
Lampard had only recently broken into the Hammers' first team in 1996 and, even though he was only in the embryonic stages of what would become a trophy and goal laden career, one Upton Park regularly decided to take umbrage with the fact Redknapp's nephew was being preferred for a first team spot ahead of Scott Canham and Matt Holland, who had been sold by the club.
Despite looking like he's just wandered off the set of Grange Hill, Lampard appeared 16 times for the Hammers in all competitions that season and would be an established first team regular by the 1997/98 campaign, making 42 appearances and scoring 10 times at just 18 years of age. Scott Canham was a year away from switching Brentford for a brief spell at Leyton Orient while Matt Holland as beginning a six year spell with Ipswich Town, where his form would earn him a call up to the Republic Of Ireland national team, with whom he would win 49 international caps.
Frank Lampard, here proving that he's marginally better than Scott Canham. Image: PA
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Of course, a manager favouring family over other seemingly capable players is always going to raise suspicions among fans and make skeptics out of many of them, but we can't imagine the fan in this video has wanted to rewatch his performance too many times, given just how drastically wrong Lampard has proved him over the past 21 years.
Also, shout out to what appears to be a quite ferocious mid '90s mullet Harry Redknapp is sporting at this point of his career. It's not quite emulating Gerry Francis but it's still a sterling effort.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Harry Redknapp, Frank Lampard, West Ham United