Imagine if West Ham were in a position to keep their golden generation of academy talent together in the late-90s and beyond.
The club introduced Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Jermaine Defoe, Michael Carrick and Joe Cole to the Premier League but all eventually departed to pastures new where most enjoyed huge success.
Harry Redknapp was their manager at West Ham in the late-90s and was in Dublin earlier this week for the launch of Eir Sport. One of the things he spoke to Newstalk's Team 33 about was the tinge of regret that he couldn't have built a Hammers dynasty with the aforementioned talent.
"Not having kept them boys together [is a regret]. Most of them won Champions League winners medals and Premier League titles. That was a fantastic group of players. If you couldn't have put five decent players with that six, then there's something wrong with you. Once they sold Rio though, it sent out the wrong message and it opened the floodgates for the other kids to go," he told me.
Redknapp, who also shared a nice story featuring Frank Lampard, his father, Harry Kane and running spikes, also gave an insight into the process of moving Gareth Bale further and further up the pitch whilst under his management at Tottenham.
"If he'd have stayed at left-back, he'd have been the best left-back in the world," said Redknapp, who also spoke about the related decision of moving diminutive playmaker Luka Modric inside from the left-flank despite doubters' word ringing in his ears about Modric's capability of surviving the physical battles of central midfield.
As Bale's progression from left-back to left-wing and now even further forward, as well as Modric's development into a high-class deep-lying playmaker, Redknapp and his staff have been vindicated.
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