Sunday 16 July 2017 13:40, UK
West Ham captain Mark Noble feels Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart has "been hard done by" with the England stopper expected to move on loan to the London Stadium.
Hart spent last season in Serie A in Torino but Sky sources understand he is likely to join the Hammers on loan by Monday.
West Ham are at a training camp in Austria as they prepare for the new campaign and Noble feels a lack of respect has been shown to Hart.
"I've known Joe for a long time, we played for England U21s together years ago," Noble told Sky Sports News HQ.
"He is obviously a fantastic goalie but at the minute he is not our player. We have got two really good goalies [Adrian and Darren Randolph] here so it would be more competition for them.
"In my opinion, he [Hart] has been a little bit hard done by in recent years. He has been fantastic for England and for his club for the last 10 years and he probably deserves a little bit more respect."
Andy Carroll missed the last month of the season with a thigh injury but has been involved in running exercises in Austria, while Pablo Zabaleta - a summer signing from Manchester City - has also been training with his new team-mates.
Noble feels they are still lacking in numbers in attack, with manager Slaven Bilic lacking a fully-fit striker at present.
"Hopefully we can get big Andy [Carroll] and [Diafra] Sakho fit. Mikael [Antonio] is not training with us yet, although he looks really fit," added Noble.
"But he is not an out-and-out forward and you've only got Andre Ayew, an experienced forward, who's not really a No 9, so I think our biggest thing last year was scoring goals and finishing teams off.
"We dug in last year and came 11th in the Premier League, though, which for the season we had is great, and hopefully we can improve on that."
Watch Manchester United v West Ham on the opening weekend of the new Premier League season. Coverage begins on Sky Sports 1 HD at 3:30pm on Sunday, August 13, after Newcastle v Tottenham.
