Tomas Soucek has reflected on his time at West Ham and the special moments he’s had in claret and blue.

Despite having dips in form, it is impossible not to love Tomas Soucek. Every single time he puts on the shirt he gives his absolute everything. That’s not just in terms of his work rates, but he puts his physical health on the line and has gathered multiple scars during his time at West Ham.

Strangely though, this doesn’t bother the midfielder as it’s just part of his game. My wife isn’t too pleased, not happy at all,” Soucek joked on the Iron Cast podcast. “When I come home, she asks ‘why always you?’.”

“It’s just me and the person I am. I don’t go into the tackles wanting to get hurt, but I want to get the ball despite it being too dangerous sometimes. If it’s just scratches and stitches it isn’t that bad.”

“I got hit from the goalkeeper against Brighton and it was quite bad. I had a bad concussion and this is much worse than an open cut. I have a lot of stiches [in my head] from maybe five or six injuries.”

While he scored some crucial goals over his career, he will struggle to strike a ball better than he did in this season’s win against Everton. Scoring a goal of that quality to win the game in the dying minutes makes it “for sure” the best goal he’s scored for West Ham “but also maybe in my career as well.”

“92 minutes gone and to score a top corner goal was amazing, it was a great goal as well. It was the first time in my career I’ve taken my shirt off, but it was special moment in front of the away fans. I like to play there [Goodison Park] and the stadium is also where the potato salad moment came from my interview. I like to play in attractive games and stadiums and our fans there are brilliant and sometimes, if I’m honest, better than the home fans. I just love to score in front of them.”

While he may not have scored in the game, there is little doubt that winning the Conference League is the best moment in the Czech Republic captain’s career. “I went there [Slavia Prague] when I was ten years old and since then, I spent all my time there apart from two six-month loans. I played there for 14 or 15 years and to go back there and win the trophy with West Ham was a dream for me,” he explained.

“I kept the beard that night as it felt superstitious. I was going to get rid of it after the quarter-finals but I kept it until the end.”

“I organised something for the guys and suddenly the gaffer [David Moyes] asked if he could come, so he was watching us dance everywhere we went. It was good he joined us with the celebrations and we were all together until the end. We then went back to the hotel at four of five in the morning. The second day with the open top bus was even better.”

Ultimately though, Soucek wants to do one better this season by winning the Europa League, something West Ham failed to do just two seasons ago. “All of us were all so happy [to get past SC Freiburg] because at three or four nil we knew we were going through and were able to enjoy it. It was quite similar to Sevilla, as the first game was 1-0 and the second leg was just perfect as we knew it was in our hands and the fans were great. The fans help us a lot.”

“I am looking forward to Leverkusen, especially the second game, because the home leg is always much better. Hopefully we can get a good result there [in Leverkusen] and bring it back here like we did before.”

Soucek concluded the interview by talking about his special relationship with Vladimir Coufal. The two have played together at Slavia Prague and West Ham as well as being key players for their country. In fact, the No.28 was a key figure in bringing the defender to the London Stadium and he is hopeful that his teammate can make it back into the national team after being dropped.

“He [Vladimir Coufal] is like a brother, I love him. He’s a good guy and it has also been so far, so good for him at West Ham. I hope he will get called back up for the Euros squad in the summer. Hopefully we get there after a good season with West Ham and continue our success with our country.”