6:30am Saturday 20th March 2010
By Ned Payne
OF all the strikers that turn out in League One this weekend, few can have had the kind of apprenticeship that Frank Nouble has experienced in his early career.
The West Ham youngster, who signed a one-month loan deal with Town yesterday morning and is expected to feature against Norwich this afternoon, has trained and played alongside some of the biggest names in English football.
Nouble, 18, was initially a Chelsea trainee before signing a professional contract with the Hammers last summer, and the tutelage of the likes of Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka and Carlton Cole was not lost on the England Under 19 international.
“I’m lucky that I’ve been around world class players that have helped me push my abilities,” Nouble told the Advertiser.
“I think my game is pace, good feet for a big man, strength, and I think I’ve picked these attributes up from the strikers I’ve watched in my playing career.
“When I was at Chelsea I just watched Drogba and Anelka training every day, and I was training with them in the last year I was there.
“At West Ham, Carlton Cole’s come on leaps and bounds, so he’s another one.”
Given his previous clubs and international prowess, Nouble arrives at the County Ground with considerable pedigree, and the frontman revealed that Town had not been the only club interested in acquiring his services.
“There were a couple of clubs in the Championship which I could have gone to, but they weren’t going anywhere,” he said.
“I thought to myself, and West Ham did as well, that Swindon are competing for the play-offs, they are right in the mix now.
“If they get a result on Saturday, they are really in there to push for second place. That appealed to me.”
Although boss Danny WIlson has utilised a 4-5-1 formation in the last two games, with Charlie Austin up front on his own, Town have played with two forwards for the vast majority of the season.
And if Wilson chooses to go down that route this weekend against the league leaders, Nouble and Austin, two players who started this season eight divisions apart, may find themselves paired together.
“He’s been doing well this year. He’s had his own route to coming to Swindon and so have I,” said Nouble of Austin.
“Hopefully if we’re playing together we can create a good partnership that can cause Norwich some problems.”
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