David Gold appears to have had had a change of heart when it comes to the Academy youngsters chances of breaking through.
In May he faced widespread criticism when he said “I think we all have to accept that it is extremely unlikely that a teenager will break into a PL team full of seasoned international. dg” later adding: “Playing teenagers doesn’t guarantee success. Hull came fifth (in number of youngsters played) and got relegated. Chelsea came last and won the league. Sam (Allardyce) played the teenagers at Nottingham Forest (in 2014) and we got beat 5-0.”
When one West Ham fan messaged this weekend praising Nathan Holland Reece Oxford Josh Cullen, Toni Martinez and Declan Rice. Gold agreed by saying: “I am extremely optimistic that these young men are capable of making the grade plus a couple you haven’t mentioned. dg”
He later mentioned the other names adding: “Yes Domingos Quina is a great prospect. dg” “Yes Martin (Samuelsson) must be included in the list of future prospects. dg” and “Reece Burke is as good a young defender as I’ve seen. dg”
I don’t think he has back-tracked at all. It IS extremely unlikely ( not impossible ), but when a club has exceptional youth players, then there is always a chance. Who has broken into our premiere league team recently?
So far we have Oxford who showed he was not ready, so he goes out on loan.
Then there is Burke, who did well but needed more experience and physical strength.
Now we’ve had 10 minutes for Rice, who is more ready than the others.
All the others ( 5 more ) were not yet ready but they will be, and then we will have a very unusual number of home produced players in our squad.
It doesn’t matter what he says someone always criticises him, he gave an opinion that’s all if he changes it so what ? God knows how often we change our opinion, if Snodgrass scores a goal a game we would say what a great buy he was, if Carroll stays fit and wins us some games we will all be dancing and chanting his name won’t we ?
Let’s see how many of the youngsters make more than 5 appearances all season. Personally, I’d like to see Burke, Cullen, Martinez, Holland, Quina and Rice blooded from the bench for more than ten minutes in League games and not just against League One or Two clubs should we draw them in the cups.
Agree Rice as been great at only 18 and Cullen deserves a chance think Slav likes Quina. But Holland in his position might be better in championship or Bundesliga he looked really good so far.
And Burke is most likely to go in loan to Botlin still already agreed put in hold Parky wants Cullen back too and know they should get time bc he has managed both if them but I think Cullen should be in squad be good for him.
And with Reid and Ogbonnas injuries we need at least Rice and needs a real chance to prove himself.
*And congrats Ox on goal in preseason think he Will do well at Gladbach and hopefully come back ready to start