The jury is out as to whether this is a signature move by Graham Potter to underline the ‘brave new world’ of academy opportunity knocks at West Ham – or just an exercise in filling up empty squad places with just about anyone available. After each transfer window Premier League clubs are required to submit their official squad lists and there are a couple of surprises in the Hammers’ revised February ’25 list, to say the least.
Having been given his debut by David Moyes just 13 minutes before the end of West Ham’s Europe Conference League fixture against FCSB in Romania, no further appearances had been awarded to 22 year old u-21 number 9 Kamarai Swyer – who now finds himself added to the match day squad list. Whether an exercise in keeping up the ‘homegrown’ tally – Swyer was born in London – or a genuine opportunity for the young man to aim at getting moments on the pitch – time will tell.
With nineteen goals at under 21 and under 18 level, he’s clearly got talent: Both he and Lewis Orford were featured on the whufc.com web site during a move that created a ‘brilliant’ goal in the u21 game against Newcastle in September: Arguably Lewis Orford’s pass was better than the finish! ( Take a look, The link is here scroll forward to 1hr 21m,35seconds).
In a similar vein, Brazilian Luizao is now added to the senior squad list: Apparently underperforming by all accounts yet he finds himself in the seniors list presumably as he happened to be the one still hanging around the changing rooms at the end of the transfer window. If he gets onto the pitch, it will be time for alarm as West Ham really will be in a deep injury crisis.
The under-21 list includes massive list of 45: you can check out the full list on the ‘updated squads’ section of the Premier League website here.
Interesting.
Sad old man that I am, watched the U-21’s last night and thought Swyer looked pretty good, he scored !
Luisao looked OK too, he may be a slow on the ball, but looked at comfortable.
Star of the show was undoubtedly Lewis Orford, looks so easy on the ball and picks a pass.
Elements of Rice, Carrick, even a bit of Stewart Robson and Alan Dickins thrown in for good measure.
Why does Lucas Paquete not appear on the list of names? Did I miss something?
That confused me as well Ricardo. Done some digging and he is registered under his birth name of Lucas Tolentino Coelho De Lima. The club website shows he was born on Paqueta Island from where he takes his name.
Reading reports of the Development squad games, Kam Swyer seems to be doing well – creating chances as well as scoring and assisting – let us see if he actually makes the 1st team squad soon
It may well be to do with home growns. You need to have eight if you’re to have a full squad of twenty five. They can be born abroad but must have been on a UK clubs list for three years before the age of 21.
Luizao doesn’t qualify, not with us long enough plus he’s 22. He’s probably there due to being a centre back. He looks strong when I’ve watched U21 games but I doubt he’s anywhere near premier league quality.
Watched Swyer in the U21 cup game against Arsenal last week, had a touch of Antonio about him, terrified the Arsenal back line running at them every time He got the ball.
Thank you for the update and it sounds very encouraging if he poses a threat, hopefully, we can get some decent results and our young defenders can get a few minutes, possibly, at full back to adjust and strikers also get to lead the line in the final minutes, such a boost to there confidence. It’s great we now have a Head Coach who’s prepared to take risks and has taken the fear of playing, away and is prepared to attack from the outset, unlike Moyes and Lopetegui who just wanted to stifle the opposition each week.