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Iron aims to do a Rice/Johnson

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Harrison Ashby is West Ham United’s “coming man” after impressing on most occasions he has made the first team.

And after joining the lads at Rush Green for training and recovering from injury of last season he is clearly hoping that will be making his way through as was the case with captain Declan Rice and Ben Johnson.

The 20-year-old travelled to St Andrews and Évian-les-Bains, for the pre-season wins at Servette and Ipswich Town and appeared as a substitute in the draws at Reading and Luton Town.

He is clearly a player fancied quite strongly in David Moyes terms and a part of the reason to let Ryan Fredericks depart the club.

The Scotland U21 international would love nothing more than to show compatriot Moyes he does not need to delve into the transfer market to bolster that area of his squad and has shown enough already for hopes to be very high for his future.

And speaking to www.whufc.com he said:  “It’s a huge privilege that they’ve given me the opportunity to train with them, and it’s even better to start games and play alongside them.

“Last year I suffered an injury and worked really hard to try to push back into the first-team squad, which is where I was before.

“I think I’ve done well, and I’m really glad that I’ve been able to push hard to get myself in and around the first team again. I’ve really enjoyed it and lets just see where it goes from here.

“Training and playing with the first team just allows your game to get better and better because you’re around elite players. With them you get stronger, you get fitter and I think that has helped me massively as a player.

“It’s a lot different to U21s football. The speed of play, the level of physicality, the speed of decision making, I think they are the main changes. It’s been a fantastic challenge for me, and I’ll look to take my opportunity when it comes.

“The aim for the next season is to push myself into the first team and battle it out with the right-backs that are currently ahead of me. I want to push myself on, push them on, and have a good battle to win the spot in the team.”

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

3 comments

  • hammerpete6 says:

    Great, great news. All the best Harrison you deserve it.

  • Chunk says:

    This is why it always baffles me when we are linked to more right backs, and to be honest, wouldn’t worry me to much if Coufal ever did go in the near future. Ashby has impressed me when I’ve seen him play and between him and Johnson can have our right back covered for the next 10 years at least in my opinion.

  • PAUL GARNER says:

    great attitude, i hope he does well.

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