West Ham United‘s loss of young talent Divin Mubama to Manchester City is a setback for the club. While the £1.2 million compensation fee is a welcome financial boost, the potential of developing a promising academy graduate into a first-team star has been lost.
Mubama’s decision to prioritise immediate opportunities over long-term development is understandable, but it’s a disappointing outcome for West Ham. The club has invested significant resources in their youth academy, and seeing a homegrown player opt for a move to a club where first-team opportunities are likely to be limited is frustrating.
What is more galling is the fact that he appears to be leaving one Premier League club’s substitutes bench to sit on another side’s bench as it seems incredibly unlikely that he will play any first-team football under Pep Guardiola this season.
The Hammers will need to focus on developing other young talents within their academy to ensure a consistent supply of players ready to make the step up to the first team. This incident highlights the many challenges faced by clubs in retaining their best young players in the face of competition from the Premier League’s top clubs.
He will be loaned out by city then sold for a big profit towards city FFP. It’s what they do now.
Quite the opposite to disappointing. He’d left the club. Any chance we had of developing him ended at that point. Him signing for City probably gave us the best payout we could have hoped for. Does anyone know if terms include a percentage of any transfer fee if City go on to sell him?
He was a free agent. Because of his age we get compensation. There was no negotiation between Citeh and Hammers so no chance of a sell on clause
Thanks. I thought the amount was agreed between the clubs rather than going to arbitration in which case I thought it might have been possible to add a sell on clause.
I believe that the clubs agree a development fee for out of contract young players between them and only if they can’t agree does it then go to a tribunal to decide.
I think it’s as straightforward as that a development fee with no other complications as out of contract.
They will loan him out so he gets competitive football. It’s what we should have done last year but it never happened.
I never at any point thought that Mubama would make a premier league standard player and I still don’t. I look at £1.2M as a result.
Spot on. He wasn’t good enough during his time with West Ham. I wish him well when City send him somewhere in the Championship on loan. The likes of Blackburn, Stoke, Preston, Sheffield Wednesday or Derby.
Man City have signed him purely to fill their homegrown quota. I think this move shows the man for what he is. He refused a West Ham contract citing he wanted 1st team football before joining a club where he won’t be allowed anywhere near the 1st team. Money is obviously the main objective for him…
absolutely. It was the Ngakia thing all over again, where he played a few games, then suddenly wanted 20K a week.
Im sure Noble and Jlo would have offered him a championship loan as part of re-signing
Sounds like the only winner is his agent.
He couldn’t control the ball and his first touch was terrible, I can’t see him playing any EPL games for Coty, hope he does well but he was and never will be a Premier league player,
Money hungry piece of ****
We go on about our academy but Look at the ones that have left,, none have set the world on fire except Declan and he was in our first team anyway. George Earthy looks like he will be the next one.
Disappointing how, exactly?
Apparently the teams seriously considering offering him a contract were foreign sides which would mean West Ham would be entitled to zero compensation for him.
With Man City taking him, we’re getting a seven-figure sum for him.
Any way you shake it, it’s a massively positive outcome for us.
Agreed with those above re his potential. His control is appalling and he just doesn’t possess a strikers instinct like Marshall who I think is a much better prospect.
Thing is under Moyes he wasn’t given a proper chance,none of the youth were. We wasted a year of giving the Youth cup winners some game time with the amount of games we had.
Just think if Earthy and Orford had more minutes then they’ll be involved now. Under a proper progressive manager we would be utilising thos talents
Spot on David.
Interesting that Jamal Baptiste made a similar move.
Will he sit on City’s bench? I doubt it, he’s not good enough. Unless Pep manages to get an amazing improvement out of him.