West Ham skipper Kevin Nolan lifts the lid on his favourite players on The Fantasy Football Club.
Hammers captain Kevin Nolan is a Premier League stalwart who has seen great players come and go. But who would make his best XI?...
GOALKEEPER - Jussi Jaaskelainen
It just comes down to the fact that I've played with him the longest so I think I have to go with him!
RIGHT-BACK - Bruno N'Gotty
He was a French international and a top, top player for us - one of the unsung heroes of a great time at Bolton.
CENTRAL DEFENCE - Guoni Bergsson and Fernando Hierro
Bergsson is someone who was very influential in my career at Bolton. He was the captain and a great fella' and someone I could go and speak to as a young kid. He was a big, strong centre-half and now I've got my two stalwarts in him and Bruno N'Gotty!
As for Hierro, you've got to have a bit of class. I only played with him for just over six months but he was absolutely brilliant. For him to come from a club of Real Madrid's stature and walk into little old Bolton and how professional he was. Some of the advice he gave me I still keep to this day.
LEFT-BACK - Ricardo Gardner
He's a very good lad and a very good friend of mine. He was an absolutely brilliant professional who could have left us a few times when I was there but the affinity he had with the fans kept him on. He'd be my left-back, definitely.
RIGHT MIDFIELD - Per Frandsen
This fella' played a few times while I was there. He was a good friend of mine then and I still speak to him now. I really enjoyed playing with him. He was a great lad to have around and I think that's why I've put him in ahead of the likes of Youri Djorkaeff and Stelios Giannakopoulos.
CENTRAL MIDFIELD - Cheick Tiote and Jay-Jay Okocha
I've played with some top midfielders since I've been playing, but Tiote stands out a mile. To see someone who'd never played in the Premier League come in and take it with the stranglehold he did was just fantastic. What a player and again, a great lad.
There were two up for this - the flair of Okocha or the passing ability of Ivan Campo. It was just on the flick of the coin but because I've got Cheick in there I think I've got to go with a bit of flair so I'll pick Jay-Jay next to him. In the season we stayed up, if it hadn't been for Okocha I think we'd have struggled. There were eight or nine games where he was just unplayable against all the top-end sides. One of the trickiest individuals I've come across in training!
LEFT MIDFIELD - Jonas Gutierrez
You could give him the ball anywhere and he could get you out of trouble. If you were under pressure, he'd take a man on and buy you a free-kick. He could play a number of positions and fully deserves his place in my side.
STRIKERS - Andy Carroll and Nicolas Anelka
I'm going with the big man Andy Carroll, of course. One of my big mates in football. We're delighted to have him here with us - he deserves to be here because of what he's done and he's not really had a fair crack of the whip at Liverpool.
Anelka was just top, top notch and he's played for all the top clubs in this country and across Europe. He mixed in with the lads, despite all the things you read about him. All the things people thought about him at the time were so untrue and he's a great lad. Great to work with, so professional and a top, top footballer.
