Julien Faubert has extremely fond memories of his time in the Championship at West Ham United, and not just because Sam Allardyce led the Londoners back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
The former France international fell out of favour big time under Avram Grant during the disastrous 2010/11 season which brought an end to the Hammers’ top-flight stay.
Faubert would have the last laugh on Grant eventually though. Allardyce was parachuted in after the former Chelsea boss failed to arrest and alarming slide towards the Championship.
And it was under sizeable Sam where Faubert would end up producing the best football of his West Ham United career, their first-choice right-back throughout a campaign which culminated in Ricardo Vaz Te’s dramatic late winner against Blackpool at Wembley.
Had Celtic hero Mikael Lustig not shared serious reservations about his own suitability, though, Faubert may have found himself battling an up-and-coming Swede for the role on the right-hand side of Allardyce’s backline.
Celtic hero Mikael Lustig explains why he rejected West Ham United transfer
Lustig, speaking to Fotbollskanalen, admits that both West Ham and Fulham showed an interest in taking him to England while he was under contract with Norwegian giants Rosenborg.
Instead, due to concerns about whether he possessed the defensive awareness at that stage to stave off predators in the most unforgiving of habitats, Lustig opted to join Celtic on a free transfer at the beginning of 2012.
“I had the chance to go to West Ham and Fulham when I was at Rosenborg,” Lustig says. “But they were two teams that were in the Championship one year, then the Premier League one year, and [often] fought at the bottom.
“At that time, I really couldn’t defend. I couldn’t go there and just defend. Then, I would be completely depressed.
“When I chose, it was really that I needed to go to a team that fought at the top and won a lot of games, because that [suited] the offensive game I had.”
While West Ham or Fulham presumably would have offered Lustig a far greater salary than the one on offer in Scotland, all he cared about at the time was finding a club which suited his strengths.
“It was really only in the last few years that I started to focus on money. [Close to retirement] you feel, ‘now, it’s good to collect the last few marbles’,” adds the now 38-year-old, who played just shy of 100 games for Sweden between 2008 and 2021.
“Before, I didn’t really care about the salary in the envelope. It was more that I was going to a club that played offensive football.”
Lustig would go on to win eight successive Scottish Premiership titles north of the border. Celtic taking full advantage of Rangers’ struggles on and off the pitch during a period of dominance unprecedented even in a usually lopsided division.
Faubert, meanwhile, was celebrating Wembley success with West Ham while fellow right-back Lustig lifted the first of many titles in the green and white of Celtic.
“[Allardyce] knew how to take the best of the players,” recalls Faubert, who famously had a short-lived loan spell at Real Madrid in 2009.
“I am a fighter, and he’s a guy who likes winning. [And ‘Big Sam’] knows how to talk to you, how to make you feel like you’re the best player. He knew the league totally. It was a great experience with him. He was tough on the pitch but so cool on the outside.
“The relationship I had with the fans was crazy. I never felt a connection like that before or after. As a player, I always felt like I was ready to die on the pitch. And I think that is the mentality of the club and the fans, so I’m still a big fan, for sure.
“When Ricardo scored against Blackpool, I think that was one of the best experiences I ever had on the pitch. The atmosphere and noise was incredible, and after knowing how the fans felt when we went down, we knew what it meant to them to go back up.
“That was an incredible day.”
