Hammers legend TC writes for you each week

People have become obsessed with statistics and yet most of them are nonsense and not worth looking at.

How many shots a team has had, how many passes you have made, how much possession you have had, it looks great on TV, but the only thing that really matters is how many goals you can score.

Southampton are a case in point. They went to Villa earlier in the season, had over 70 per cent of the possession and lost 3-2, while on Saturday it was a similar story.

One statistic you can’t argue with is the fact that West Ham have now won four on the trot and put that with the superb draw at Chelsea and it really has been a remarkable run.

I went along to the West Ham training day last Tuesday and I could see that the lads were really buzzing. They had just come back from a trip to Dubai and the confidence was so high and you could see that in the match against Southampton.

I have always said that when the full squad returns then West Ham are a match for anyone and that has proved to be right.

They face another tough game on Saturday at my old team Everton, who probably have the strongest defence in the league, but I would not be too fearful about them scoring goals against us, as they are struggling at the moment.

Big Sam has a tough choice between keeping Carlton Cole in or bringing back Andy Carroll and I have to say I am in two minds about it.

Part of me thinks that Andy is so fundamental to the team that he has to come in, but Carlton has let nobody down and scored again on Saturday.

Keeping the same line-up was an important thing in my day, so maybe he will keep Cole in and put Andy on the bench - we will see.

Nobody is worth £300,000 a week

A lot has been said about Wayne Rooney’s new contract at Manchester United and his £300,000 a week and of course if you ask me if any player is worth that I would have to say no.

But of course we have to put this into perspective. There are very few world class English players, but Rooney is certainly one of them.

You have to pay the going rate for players like that and just think how much cash it would take to find a replacement for him.

As I say, of course he is not worth that sort of money, but nobody complains about the amount of money that Lewis Hamilton, Rory McIlroy or Andy Murray make in a year, it is the footballers who get it in the neck.

Some would say I was born too early to cash in on all that money, but I played at a superb era for football, had a great time both on and off the field and I wouldn’t swap it!