West Ham captain Mark Noble has moved to ease tension with fans over comments made this week.

The 29-year-old midfielder, who has been at the club throughout his career, said in a TV interview: “If I'm really honest, a lot of people who go to football now don't really understand the game." Now Noble has sought to clarify the comments.

Noble said, “I also want to clarify some comments I made in an interview I gave at the start of the week, as I feel they didn't come across as I wanted them to.

“I was asked about the criticism that has been levelled at me and the team this season, and I just want to make it clear that I wasn't digging out West Ham United fans in general, because I can assure you if I wasn't playing I'd be sitting with them.

“When it comes to the criticism, there is a small minority who just want to criticise the players and the manager at the first opportunity. As much as we try to ignore the comments made on social media, sometimes they are unavoidable and while I'm not fussed about whether I get stick or not, some players are affected by it.

“I think back to exactly 10 years ago, when we were bottom of the Premier League.

“If social media existed then like it does today, people would have been calling for Alan Curbishley to be sacked or for all the players to be dropped, including Carlos Tevez!

“Then what happened? Everything clicked and we won seven out of our last nine games to stay up!"