By Simon Leyland
Despite the doom and gloom surrounding the London Stadium at the moment, there is some good news.
West Ham legend and now director of football Mark Noble is planning to reshape the club’s academy and wants to see more players being given a chance in the search for another Declan Rice.
REUTERS/David Klein EDITORIAL USE ONLY.
Proudly known as being ‘the academy of football, we have introduced some top young players in the past including Joe Cole and Frank Lampard But for some reason the academy’s success has faltered in recent years and we have seen quite a few talented youngsters leave for pastures anew.
Aji Alese, Harrison Ashby, Sonny Perkins, Emannuel Longelo and Pierre Ekwah are some of the youngsters who have left to the disappointment of fans, having not seen them given much of a chance.
Noble came through the ranks at West Ham himself and he is desperate for the club to rediscover their reputation of giving stars a chance.
In an interview with the Evening Standard recently, he said: ““The boy Chelsea signed from Benfica [Enzo Fernandez] went there for £10m and Chelsea had to spend £105m-plus for him. It just shows you that recruiting young players is getting harder and harder.
“You need a Declan Rice from the academy, because we can’t spend that amount on a player, that’s for sure.
“It’s so important to bring the young boys through, because any young English player who plays in the Premier League all of a sudden has a £30m price tag and, for us, that’s fantastic. And it’s nice to know at some point we might not have to spend loads of money if we can bring players through.”
“In this new role, I’ve found a real affection for working with the academy, and trying to get as many players into the first team as we can.
“I still put my boots on and train with the Under-18s and the U21s, because you only know first-hand what they’re like when you’re training with them.
“It’s great, because I get to see them first-hand, and I’m probably the best person in the world for them to ask questions about what it’s like to break into the first team.”
Encouraging news that finally the Academy is being taken seriously again, because we have some young players with big futures ahead of them like Divin Mubama and Ollie Scarles.
Hopefully when the bnext manager is appointed we will see our Academy players been given far more chances to prove themselves.
Get rid of Moyes at all costs.
He’s the main so many good youngsters have left. Worst management ever at WHU
Double good news, If Nobes is also talking about the next manager already.
Woohoo
It’s no good to keep blaming Moyes for the Academy poor performance. It’s been the case since 1999 so quite a few managers come and gone! There are no young players having left in last 20 plus years gone on to have successful top league careers.