West Ham are set to stage a massive cull of the Development Squad over the next few weeks.
The club confirmed today that Jamie Harney and Danny Whitehead have both have both left West Ham United.
And this follows announcements on their social media channels that Ben Marlow and Kieron Bywater will not be signing new contracts.
Colchester United later announced they had signed former Hammers U21 defender Harney on a free transfer following his release.
It won’t stop there with no news of contract offers to 14 others -Danny Potts, Seb Lletget, Paul Mccallum, Lewis Page, Taylor Tombides, Josh Cullen, Blair Tugott, Matthias Fanimo, Kieran Sadlier, Raphael Spiegel, Moses Makasi, Nathan Mavila, Amos Nasha and Sam Westley.
Elliot Lee has two years remaining on his contract after penning a new two and a half year deal in March last year, Reece Oxford, Reece Burke and Joe Powell have also recently signed new long term three year contracts. Jaanai Gordon’s contract runs until the summer of 2018.
If all of them leave the club in addition to the four already named it will be a complete clear out of the Academy built by Tony Carr and Nick Haycock.
Terry Westley took over the Academy last Summer with Steve Potts announced as the Under 21 manager last week. It is understood Terry has been tasked by the board with getting return on the £4m plus investment made into the Academy every year.
The Hammers U21’s remain bottom of the Premier League U21 league with eight points after losing eight of their 12 games this season.
Seriously Concerning, to think we used to be The Academy! come our move to the OS is it even possible we may have No players any longer developed by Our Club? Just think when we had so many local born players at one time.
Terry Westley is proving his worth in the same manner as the Allardyce.get rid of him if he can’t produce. At what point will it be blatantly obvious Westley is not good enough to carry the Academy forward?
Ffs rugby,it says as we all know he took over in the summer.So it is fair to assume he took over the kids that were already advanced in the program.Clearly he has assesed what he has inherited & doesnt think they are good enough.They are bottom of the league,it hardly seems like he has an array of talent to call upon.Maybe he isnt a good man for the job,maybe he is,but you will not reap the benefits from his regime in 5 months which he has had so far.Carry the academy forward? What do you expect in 5/6 months of him in charge.A little nest of Messis to hatch 🙂
At the end of the day, four wins from twelve and bottom of the table seems to me to be a very poor return for £4mill a year!
I think it is only right that the club demand better results than that. If some of these players are’nt good enough then get rid of them!
It would appear that terry Wesley and Steve Potts have been given the job of overhauling the development squad/academy, judging by recent results it is long overdue.
I think many of these lads are good footballers but not good enough for top half of the Prem.. I wish them all the best though and hope they find good clubs
COYI