Departed Hammers kid: “It hurt, I thought I’d done enough “

By Simon Leyland

Former West Ham United left-back Manny Longelo has been talking about his frustrations at not being able to get first-team football whilst at West Ham.

The 22-year-old Barking-born defender left the Irons permanently on January transfer deadline day to join Birmingham City after spending the first half of the season out on loan at St Andrew’s.

Before going out on loan, Longelo played twice for West Ham’s first-team, making his debut as a substitute against Hull City in the Carabao Cup in September 2020 before playing the full 90 minutes in a Europa League game against Dinamo Zagreb.

Longelo has opened up on his frustrations at not making the grade at West Ham, who he first joined at the age of ten.

Quoted per Football.London he said: “I thought I’d done enough to be around the squad. But unfortunately, it didn’t happen. It hurt a lot because I started asking myself, ‘What more do I need to do?’ Then I got injured after, which was annoying because I was supposed to go out on loan.” 

I sympathise with the lad, but he was always down the pecking order at West Ham. If he had stayed, I daresay his chance would have come.