West Ham had a very strong squad when the club was relegated from the Premier League in 2002- 03. What went wrong?

wasn’t my friend but he was a fantastic player and strong character. It wasn’t easy for Paolo to get on well with everyone all the time. There were a few tensions, but whenever he was on a pitch he was a very good player. Sometimes he was simply brilliant.

It was so disappointing – it’s something I still think about a lot. It was almost impossible for that team to get relegated, but football is like this sometimes. When a season starts badly, it keeps getting worse and you can’t seem to turn the tables. I had a strange groin problem that season, which was particularly annoying because it wasn’t too serious. However, every time I returned to training, I broke down again. I came back for a few games near end of the season, and it was frustrating not being able to help the team more. I’m not saying it would have been different if I’d been there from the start, but I felt the responsibility of not being available on the pitch to help my team- mates. right time, and that’s what happened for me in Seville. A lot of unknown stars joined the team, such as Dani Alves, Adriano and Luis Fabiano, due to the great work of the sporting director [ Monchi], and there were some good academy players like Jesus Navas and Antonio Puerta. The atmosphere in the side was just fantastic.

You won the UEFA Cup twice at Sevilla. What do you remember about securing the club’s first- ever European trophy – a 4- 0 win over Middlesbrough in the 2006 final?

I was disappointed to be starting on the bench, as I was coming back from a small injury. But the match was incredible – we thought it was going to be tougher. It was crazy – it seemed so easy for us to play and everything we tried worked. I came on for the second half, and at the end of the game I scored from a rebound. They were great memories.