Interesting to see how the careers of young up-and-coming Academy stars develop: One in particular caught the media attention during transfer season when he became involved in one of the biggest stories round -the Jhon Duran ‘on-off-on-off’ transfer saga.
As part of the negotiations, way back in early August you’ll recall that West Ham rising star Lewis Orford was offered or proposed as a makeweight to Aston Villa to try and sweeten the deal.
This caused a furore in a number of quarters including ours:https://www.claretandhugh.info/pawning-the-family-silver-i-west-ham-scrape-the-barrel/ Changed, ultimately failed negotiations led to Orford remaining a Hammer and subsequently, somewhat surprisingly, leading to a new five year contract being signed by London Stadium’s homegrown pearl.
West Ham’s PR confirming Orford’s new 5 year deal
An interesting take on this from Sky Sports’ Dan Bardell who has suggested today that Orford must have had assurances of first team football to enable him to sign a new contract with confidence.
Writing on his own page on west ham zone, Dan Bardell believes that a ‘clear path’ has been offered to Lewis to help him commit his future to West Ham United and a new contract. the club announced this a few days ago via whufc.com with much credit going to former skipper Mark Noble for brokering the deal.
Unlike the David Moyes era when nobody was signed, new or renewing their contract, with any guarantee of first team football, it seems the Lopetegui-Steidten management team is a little more adept at doing what is needed to get the players they want signed up.
I find this all especially interesting since many of Lopetegui’s detractors have worried that the 9 new signings and further potential ‘free’ signings will actually block academy players from ever making it into the first team. Only time will tell who is right – but we’d love to see Orford make it big along with George Earthy, probably the youngsters closest to achieving elevation to the first team -along with Kaelan Casey – this next couple of seasons.
These fa cup youth winning boys is probably the first time we’ve had a crop of players good enough for the first team since the days of Cole Lampard Carrick Defoe etc. we saw earthy and Casey play in the premier league already. Let’s hope there really is a future pathway for these boys. I think Marshall Earthy and Casey are the ones. Harder for midfielders to break in I think but Rice did it so why shouldn’t or Ford or Potts. Good luck to them all.