Black History Month Players: Paul Ince

 As October is Black History Month in the UK, I will spend this month publishing threads on X (formerly Twitter) on certain players who have been part of a long and distinguished line of Black representation at West Ham United. With this being the second year I have undertaken this exercise, I thought it would be fair to publish a blog post for those who don't have X or find threads on the platform difficult to read. Feel free to read last year's threads, via this link, but this post and today's thread on X is on the first captain of England's senior team, Paul Ince. 

To anyone around my age (29) and older who grew up watching football in the 90s and early 2000s, Paul Ince was a well-known name. Nicknamed the “guvnor”, Ince was one of the best defensive midfielders in Europe at the height of his career. But he started his career with 

West Ham. 

Born in Ilford on the 21st of October 1967, Ince grew up supporting the club and was scouted by club manager John Lyall at the age of 12. Lyall took great interest in Ince and helped him get through a troubled education & childhood. But despite challenging factors outside of football, Ince would regularly show talent far beyond his years, signing youth terms at 14 and professionally at 17. With such talent needing to be handled carefully, Ince was mentored by John Lyall throughout his early career and it was his mentor who gave him his debut in November 1986, shortly after his 19th Birthday. In the next 2 and a half seasons, Ince became a breakout star at West Ham. His all-action performances as a complete midfielder won him plenty of fans and was considered by some as the natural successor to Bryan Robson at Manchester United and was appointed as the spiritual successor in West Ham's midfield to Billy Bonds, who had moved back into defence in the latter years of his career & would retire in 1988. On a side note, is it just me or does an academy prospect with the potential to be world-class replacing a club legend in West Ham's midfield sound familiar? Sadly, with West Ham struggling to compete at the higher end of the table at the end of the 1980s, it seemed inevitable that Ince, a player who showed the ability to play at the very top of the game, would leave the club eventually. And with West Ham being relegated in 1989 and his mentor Lyall sacked at the end of the season, Ince felt like his time at the club had understandably come to an end after making 95 appearances and scoring 12 goals in the 2 and a half years since his debut. 

Whilst Paul Ince has had a great and long legacy with the English game, his legacy with West Ham is one that isn’t remembered too fondly and West Ham’s relegation in 1989 is part of the reason behind it. Having agreed to sign for Manchester United following West Ham’s relegation for a million pounds, somewhat confirming the suggestions that Ince was to be Bryan Robson's successor, Ince did all the press, including his first picture in a United shirt, for his move before he went on holiday that summer. However, by pure accident, someone at the Daily Star newspaper discovered this picture... 

As the move to Manchester United hadn’t been finalised by this point, this caused a huge outrage among the West Ham fanbase when this photo was published. Whilst Ince has explained the circumstances surrounding this, it has left a bitter taste in the mouth of many West Ham fans. Since then, whenever Ince returned to play at West Ham, he was met with a hostile reception and was referred to as a “Judas”, as shown in the picture below.

In his 6 years at Manchester United, Ince became a key figure for the club, making 281 appearances and scoring 28 goals, whilst also laying the foundation for the club's dominance over English football for the next 20 years. He would also fulfil his potential as the successor to Bryan Robson, who was plagued with injuries in the final years of his career.

Making a name for himself as the Midfield General for United, Ince also made himself integral to England throughout the 90s. Making his debut in 1992, Ince would play 53 times for his country, with the image below emblematic of him as a player and a leader on the field. Additionally, Ince made history in June 1993, when in only in his 7th cap, Ince became the first black player to captain England's senior team, adding to the great lineage of black representation that West Ham has created at the international level of football, 30 years after John Charles became the first black player to represent England at any level. 

Back to his club career, Ince would leave Manchester United in 1995, moving to Inter Milan for what was then a very large fee of £7.5 million, where he would become a well-liked player in what was probably the most competitive league in the world at the time making 73 appearances and scoring 13 goals. But Ince and his family never truly settled in Italy & returned home in 1997.

Returning to England with United's biggest rivals Liverpool, Ince would spend two years at Anfield making 81 appearances and scoring 17 goals before moving to the North-East of England with Middlesbrough after a falling out with Liverpool's then-manager Gerard Houiller. Ince would spend 3 years with Middlesbrough scoring 9 goals in 106 games, becoming a key part of the side, but ultimately leaving the club as he could not keep up with the commute to the North-East from the North-west, joining Wolverhampton Wanderers, giving up Premier League football, but ultimately moving to a club closer to home. However, Ince would not be away from Premier League football for long, earning promotion with Wolves in 2003, winning the play-offs in the process, albeit for a season as Wolves were immediately relegated back to the first division in 2004. Ince would eventually leave Wolves in 2006, spending a final season as a player-coach for Swindon and then a player-manager for Macclesfield, retiring in 2007, just shy of his 40th birthday, helping the club avoid relegation in the process. 

With a promising start to his managerial career with Macclesfield, Ince would not get to enjoy retirement for long as due to impressing many within the game by achieving such a feat in his first managerial role, Ince was then offered the opportunity to manage MK Dons, where it seemed he was going from strength to strength as a manager as the team were top of league two by the end of 2007. By the end of the season, Ince had won promotion for the club and also added a trophy with MK Dons winning the 2008 football league trophy, which was when Blackburn Rovers came knocking. 

Ince's stint at Blackburn was a disaster, with Ince admitting that he managed too early in the premier league, he would carry on his managerial career with stints at Notts County, MK Dons again & Blackpool, where he managed his son Tom. This was followed by an almost 9-year hiatus from management that would end when Ince took over Reading in February 2022, where he saved them from relegation in his first season, before a great start to last season would result in a huge collapse in form and see Reading relegated to League One amidst financial struggles for the club as well, with Ince leaving the club before the end of the season. 

And whilst the latest chapter in his footballing career didn't end well and whilst some at West Ham may not remember him fondly, Ince deserves praise & respect for carving such an esteemed career in football. He won multiple trophies in his playing career & is rightly remembered as a legend of the game. Ince still supports West Ham to this day & I believe we should let bygones be bygones and respect the lad from Ilford who went down in history as the first black captain of his country & who has made a great contribution to the game as well.