West Ham boss Slaven Bilic has confirmed that Sam Byram is seen as one for next year and will start his Irons career in the Development team.
ClaretandHugh followers at the site and on the Facebook Group have been responding at https://www.facebook.com/groups/363174467150521/
Here’s what some of them have to say.
O Byram must be chuffed to bits with the prospect of a guaranteed place in the Dev squad. “Oh joy, oh joy, oh joy” you can hear him chirping! Hope he doesn’t get as ignored as Antonio,
O There is nothing wrong with players learning from the outset that they have to earn their place in the first team. We have moved on from automatic selection and that has to be a good thing.
O It’s a good way of deflecting pressure off him. Ease him into the Premier League rather than throwing him in at the deep end!
O Put him in the first team as soon as possible. He has learnt in the Championship in the last 2 years,we made the same mistake with Antonio,he should have played months earlier but he was for next year if I remember right,
O Need to get him involved in the first team not the development squad.
O Next three games, bring him on as sub. Make the change earlier each time. Limited risk and we find out whether his is ready now or not
Get rid of jenks ! Now !!! Put the lad straight in the squad he’s had his apretiship at leeds !
Play him he’s a hammer ! Played cresswell didn’t we ?
The problem is jenkinson , end of !!!!
I agree with the idea of from the bench for the next few games….getting more time to prove himself….Antonio is proof that we need to se what is on offer…perhaps we could see more of Oxford…..and my last and confused thought is what has happened to Diego Poyet…..player of the year at Charlton…silky smooth on the ball….but shipped out till the end of the season, why wasn’t he given his chance….If we don’t encourage youth we’ll never be able to attract them….let’s remember Pogpa….
I understand we are all going to have our opinions on what does seem a strange decision but the bottom line is i trust slaven and if thinks introducing him into the dev squad before putting him in the pl would be good for him then im with him. I can see his point, if the boy comes in and has a couple of bad games it could really shake his confidence. Even Though the price tag isnt big the expectations are and maybe easing him in allowing him to acclimatise himself to the step up would help him better in the long run..my 2 pence COYI! ⚒
SB knows what he is doing, he was never likely to be on from the start against Man City if he shows what he can do in the dev squad I am pretty sure he will start making the bench and progressing, its a big step from Championship level to PL level, Antonio’s first appearance was a sub against City he looked completely lost perhaps SB is avoiding putting him straight into the firing line against the best attack in the league.
He has to develop into a premiership fit and able player, that’s why it’s called a development squad, he has to learn about the club and its playing/ training systems, equally, the club has to learn about him and iron out any technical weaknesses he may have and see how we can use his strengths to the first teams advantage