Pre season is the time traditionally for the coach to evaluate the fitness of ‘old hands’ and integrate new players within his squad before making the final decision on who stays and who goes nearer the end of the window. Which is a little ironic: New players? Ah. None yet.
However if reports are to be believed then the West Ham coach has already made up his mind on one young Hammers striker, as reported yesterday: Roshane Thomas, fast becoming one of the more reliable, better connected journalists in the post-Sullivan era, writing in the NYTimes claims that for one young ‘starlet’, Callum Marshall, the Hammers dream is already over ,almost before it began.
“The Northern Ireland international featured in the first half of West Ham’s friendly against Colchester United.
Marshall has been earmarked for sale, according to the NY Times
The 21-year-old striker is entering the final year of his deal and does not feature in Nuno’s plans. Marshall, who had a loan spell at German side Bochum last season, is expected to be sold this summer.”
Which will come as a bitter blow to Marshall who has done the hard work as a loanee and would have hoped that Championship life might have brought opportunities for him to make this his break through season. However, Nuno evidently sees it differently.
Like so many others, notably young striker Freddie Sears who couldn’t follow up his early promise, it seems Marshall may be destined for life and a career in the lower divisions away from the club at which he showed such promise as a teenager.
Unless of course he grabs a couple of goals this afternoon against Southend: It will be interesting to see if Nuno has already written him off or whether Marshall gets a sniff of a chance to shine.
Most of our young players are not as good as we take them to be, the majority end up in the lower leagues whether they stay, leave or whatever.
Rosanne may well be a good journalist (you would know better than me) but does that really sound like the kind of information a manager would freely give out? It sounds unlikely to me. The days of a manager blabbing his inner most thoughts over a few pints in the Dog and Duck are long gone. No I’m not buying that one 😊⚒️⚒️
It’s a shame if he goes, but i saw a lot of him playing for Bochum last season (Bundesliga II free on Youtube) and he really didn’t do a great deal at what is probably Championship level or lower.
Good news really. We were in danger of becoming a nursery for for potential talent to try out at first team level.
We need to make our best efforts at ensuring promotion this season and not playing solely to give ‘youngsters’ experience.
We need committed teamwork from committed players and not hopeful faces lurking in the dressing room.
There will be time for opportunities when we are 25 points clear.