All the Hammers fans would no doubt wish him well after he’s been an incredible servant over the past few years, giving everything for the club.

The right-back has been pretty much an ever-present in the side this season, having made 24 appearances in all competitions and previously playing in every Premier League game.

It’s understandable that he isn’t too happy with his current teams as there are fringe players at the London Stadium who are probably earning at least double what the defender is.

His performances have deserved an improved deal, but due to his age, it is unlikely the hierarchy decide to offer him more money after a one-year extension was activated recently.

That is something I learned right at the beginning of my career, as manager of Universidad de Chile. I had spent 14 years playing for that club – almost 500 matches defending the shirt. So it was a very special moment for me to make my debut as a manager there.

It was also a risk. The club was in very bad shape financially and had many problems.
In the middle of the season, I made a mistake. I went to England for one month to do a coaching course, leaving the team with my assistant in charge.
In the end, we went down. Relegated not even by a point, but by one goal. It’s this type of experience I’m talking about when I say it either sinks you or you use it in a good way. To improve yourself.

As long as you face up to your responsibility and believe that you can turn that failure around in future, I think you grow as a person.
That’s not to say it was easy.
I was starting my career with heavy baggage. It would be quite a challenge to prove that I could still have a big, international career.
Coaching wasn’t always my goal, though. To tell you the truth, for most of my playing days I had thought that when I finished as a player, I would commit my life 100 per cent to construction.
I was already an engineer while I was still playing and had set up my own construction company, so it seemed destined that was my path.
What changed? I met Fernando Riera. He was my manager at Universidad de Chile and a coach who was very well known internationally – the man who took the Chilean national team to third place at the 1962 World Cup.
Bit by bit, over the five years he managed me as a player, he stirred that vocation in me so that, in the end, I decided to do the coaching courses.

My parents weren’t that pleased. They thought it was a waste of time to quit an important career as an engineer to commit to football. But if I’m ever asked about my choice I always reply the same way.