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It seems that loyalty is a rare sight in football nowadays. One minute a player is kissing the badge on his shirt and being adored by the club’s supporters, then he’s off out the door to pastures new as soon as someone waves a fat cheque book in his face.

At the press conferences these players declare their love for this ‘fantastic’ club, then someone offers them an extra twenty grand a week and they’re off without as much as a thank you to the club.

We saw this in 1989 with Paul Ince, in 2001 with Frank Lampard Jr. and again in 2004 with Jermaine Defoe, and countless other times with less high profile players.

With Defoe, the sun hadn’t even set on the day West Ham were relegated to Division One when he handed in a transfer request to the board, whereas players like Michael Carrick and Rob Lee stayed to help us try to get back to the promised land.

And now, if rumours are to be believed, our midfield maestro Ravel Morrison seems to the latest ‘star’ to want to out. Whether this story is just his agent putting stories out in order to get his client a better, longer deal at West ham, or a bigger deal at a ‘bigger’ club, and himself a bumper pay day in the process, we will probably never know, but these stories can be unsettling to an already struggling squad.

As we battle against relegation again, we need our squad to be together, to be united and dig in and battle to push us on up the table. One bad apple can quickly turn the rest of the apples bad too.

I would hate to see Ravel leave the club because I think he has natural talent in abundance and skill any other midfielder would be jealous of, a truly gifted player, and he’s still only 20-years-old. Not just one for the future but one for now and many years to come.

If Ravel reads this then I would urge him to stay where he is appreciated. We haven’t seen such natural talent since Paolo Di Canio was at our club and he is now and always will be a West ham legend.

Legend is a word that gets bantered about a lot, but I sincerely believe he has the ability to earn that status at West ham United Football Club.

When a club is in your heart, you cannot change your allegiance to another club because that would be disloyal. I hope Ravel can show us some loyalty in our hour of need, when the club and fans have stuck by him.

Don’t kick us when we are down, Ravel. Your club needs you.

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