West Ham captain Mark Noble called a team meeting to “have it out” over the Kurt Zouma situation, David Moyes has revealed.
Zouma is under investigation by the RSPCA after footage emerged last week of the France international kicking and slapping his pet cat.
The 27-year-old apologised and has been fined £250,000 by West Ham, while the RSPCA have taken his two cats into care.
Moyes insisted last week that the incident had brought his group closer together, but has now revealed that Noble - the West Ham captain - quickly brought the squad together to clear the air and discuss any issues in order to avoid it breaking the bond which has formed over the past two years.
“Mark Noble does a brilliant job,” said Moyes.
“He brought the players together. They all spoke about the situation. They had it out amongst themselves. He did the sort of thing an experienced captain would do, which is great for the manager.
“There's a lot of joined-up things at the football club. We might not always do the right things or get it right. But no matter what age we are, where we are, I have to keep learning. I had a new learning experience last week.”
Moyes added: “Mark did it off his own back, took responsibility and showed great leadership. All football clubs need leadership, whether from the top, the manager, the captain.
“He took a lot of leadership and showed: ‘I'm going to get this out in the open and out of the way. We're going to discuss it. See who's happy and who's not happy. Let's flush it out’.
“Ultimately we've got a lot of games and the players need to work together. Mark showed what he is and what he has been – a really good captain.
“Sometimes you need a bit of adversity to drive you on. Now we need to make sure we use all the things to our advantage the best we can. It was our own doing so we're the ones who have to fix it ourselves, nobody else.”
