The club have officially confirmed that West Ham academy players Kieran Sadlier and Ben Marlow have left the Club after their contracts were cancelled my mutual consent.
This brings the total number of Academy players officially released to six in the past week. The club previously confirmed Jamie Harney, Danny Whitehead, Blair Turgott and Matthias Fanimo have all left West Ham United after their contracts were cancelled my mutual consent. Blair Turgott signed for Coventry on transfer deadline day on a free transfer.
A host of other Academy players whose contract expire this summer are also thought to be under threat and their names could soon be added to this expanding list, They include Danny Potts, Seb Lletget, Paul Mccallum, Lewis Page, Taylor Tombides, Josh Cullen, Raphael Spiegel, Moses Makasi, Nathan Mavila, Amos Nasha and Sam Westley.
Terry Westley took over the Academy last Summer with Steve Potts announced as the Under 21 manager earlier this year . It is understood Terry has been tasked by the board with getting a return on the £4m plus investment made into the Academy every year.
The Hammers U21’s remain bottom of the Premier League U21 league with eight points after losing eight of their 12 games this season.
Maybe DS is living upto his statement where he said he didn’t know what the point was in having an academy if you can just nick players for next to nothing from other clubs… It is a great shame, have seen so many good players come through that academy over the years…
If there not good enough then they have to go,but last year BFS sent a whole team of them out against Forest have they become that bad in one year or was that BFS axe after they let him down,
I just dont think this crop of youngsters were quite good enough for the premier league .. most will prob have careers in the 1st or 2nd Div.
Good luck to them though
It’s very sad for the boys concerned – I wish them well in their future careers and hope they find success elsewhere – but there is something seriously wrong with the West Ham Academy. Virtually no one has come through since James Tomkins – Danny Potts had a couple of games but has since disappeared. There were a series of ‘lightweights’ like Robert Hall, Zavon Hines, Junior Stanislaus and Freddie Sears – thry all flattered to deceive and were quickly moved on!
You do wonder what the purpose of the Academy is if there’s no end product – the East End and Essex was full of footballers once, what’s happened?
part of the problem is that clubs like chelsea, arsenal etc. sign the best players when they’re 15/16 so by the time it gets to u21s clubs like west ham have very few good prospects, but they have too many, and end up just farming them out on loan