Paul Ince Interview from 442

And this, from the same article, although I never knew the reason before reading this;

What was the story behind you posing in a United shirt while you were still a West Ham player?

"Let me put the record straight. My wife Claire and I were living in a house in Dagenham. I had just bought an XR3i cabriolet and parked it outside the house. The roof and wheels kept getting slashed, and the windows were smashed. At the end of the 1988-89 season I went to the West Ham manager John Lyall and said, "Look, no disrespect gaffer, but I'm getting my car trashed, so I need to get out of this house, and on the wages I'm on I haven't got enough money to move."

He could see what I was saying and sorted out a new contract. I'll tell you exactly how much it was for - £1,100-a-week. It was all ready for me to sign when I came back for pre-season training. But while I'm on holiday, John got the sack and Lou Macari took over. I told Lou about the contract, but his exact words were: "At your age, you shouldn't be on that much money." I couldn't stay after that.

Man United then became interested, so I spoke to Alex Ferguson and the deal was close to being done. I then went on holiday, and my agent at the time, Ambrose Mendy, said it wasn't worth me coming back to do a picture in a United shirt when the deal was completed, so I should do one before I left.

This would be released when the deal was announced. Lawrence Luster of the Star took the picture and put it in his library. Soon after, their sister paper the Express were looking for a picture of me playing for West Ham, and found the one of me in the United shirt at the bottom of the pile. They published it and all hell broke loose.

I came back from holiday to discover West Ham fans were going mad. It wasn't really my fault. I was only a kid, I did what my agent told me to do, then took all the crap for it. The most annoying thing was Luster never had the balls to come out and say what had actually happened. He has killed me. If I ever see him again I'll give him a good hiding.

I went up to United, but then failed the medical, so I had to return to West Ham. I sat on the bench for a couple of games, but my wife was getting stick in the stands, so I thought, nah, I'm not having this! Alex Ferguson got in touch to tell me that he was resurrecting the deal and that he'd look after me. I have to thank him for that. That is the story, but God, all the crap I get from West Ham fans!"

 

TBH I never fully understood why he got so much stick when he left. It's only recently that I learnt of the shirt wearing thing, somehow I missed that at the time. Although I was living in Aberdeen at the time and the latest affairs of West Ham don't exactly get much coverage up there.

I do remember thinking at the time that he will be back someday. I assumed it would be in the capacity of a player but perhaps not!!