Claret and blue, through and through: Billy Bonds embodied West Ham

Billy Bonds is closed down by Arsenal’s Alan Sunderland during the 1980 FA Cup final, as Second Division West Ham seek to hold their lead. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/The Guardian

Some players embody a club but few have ever embodied their side more than Billy Bonds, who died on Sunday at the age of 79. He was not a one-club man but by the time he finally retired, at the age of 41, in 1988, he felt like one, having racked up a record 799 appearances for West Ham. Just as significantly, he had lifted the FA Cup twice as captain.

There was applause at the London Stadium on Sunday as a montage was shown on the big screens. It featured a number of spectacular long-range strikes because it’s easier to show somebody scoring goals than preventing them, and still harder to somehow sum up leadership.