West Ham may be on their way to the showpiece stadium of British sport as a new home and sitting in a lofty sixth place in the Premier League but they haven’t forgotten their roots.
For last week a new clutch of highly promising youngsters were signed as the club strengthened from the bottom up.
Co-chairman David Gold told ClaretandHugh: “I was at the training ground when the youngsters were signed up – some as young as 16, all excited and ready to prove themselves.
“We are all excited about the immediate future but we will continue to plough funds into the academy and bring in the brightest prospects we can find.
“We already have some fabulous young players knocking on the door – their chances are increasing of breaking through and we want competition at all levels as we aim to become a truly big club.
“It’s great to see these youngsters signing up – we are developing at all levels.”
So long as they get a chance to play I am all for it, I would rather finish out of the European places for a few seasons and build a system whereby we constantly have youth coming throughand given its chance to the extent that we turn into a Man Utd with the right blend of youth and experience than go short term like so many teams and over invest in players that are already established with big transfer fees, the biggest disappointment for me this season is that Oxford hasn’t been given enough playing time, he only had one less than good game and other than the subs bench hasn’t been seen since.
Great to see we still have an eye on the future , although i can’t see too many Irons fans wanting to sacrifice European football now we are on the verge of breaking into it for the sake of concentrating on bringing through young players . I think the right approach is to have the most promising ones in and around the fringes of the first team squad to gain experience . I too am surprised that Reece Oxford hasn’t featured more often given his promising displays early in the season but i am sure there is a good reason . Maybe we don’t want to put him in the “shop window ” until he is tied down to a long contract ! Man City and Arsenal are already sniffing about ,who knows ? I am a firm believer in the adage that if they’re good enough then they are old enough but lets not forget the damage that Allardyce did by throwing too many kids in at the deep end for cup games .
We need to keep an eye on the future , but also concentrate on the here and now at this very exciting time . COYI .
Ok another article here state Man City are after Oxford and can offer him Champios League football which might by insinuation be attractive to him despite the fact that he is a million miles from such an honour. However it shows precisely that the concept of sacrificing European football for a while to bring through young talent is a totally self defeating tactic as it will, as we should know from our history, only train up kids to go on to other teams who are in Europe.
Last Monday I saw both Oxford and Samuelson play and the latter was by common acknowledgment the best player on the pitch by some way. Yet this very player was dumped from the Man City youth setup as suppless to requirements when the same age as Oxford. He himself has said he has improved measurably more in his year with us than he did at his former club. If Oxford has his head turned by that club then he would be a fool as his chances of progressing there would be immeasurably less than with us and chances of first team football likely minimal for years. After all a central defender as compared to any other outfield position takes on average at least 2 more years to mature and find his feet usually taking till their twenties to hold down a position. Ferdinand with us and Stones now are great example of this, unfounded ted talent yet as teens nothing like the finished artical. Either if they were only that good at age 22 or 23 would most like be deemed not up to the rigours of the Premiership at least at the top level so matters have to be carefully managed. I agree too much exposure for Oxford this year would only have made it more likely for him to leave it would have both gone to his head and encouraged the scorched earth tactics of the likes of Chelsea and City to churn through young players for their own selfish motives in the hope of finding the odd gem at the totall expense of the careers of most of the players concerned.