Manuel Pellegrini will give himself more time to decide the immediate futures of the under 23 contingent currently with the first team squad in pre-season.
He had been expected to have made his mind up on which of the youngsters would be staying at the club or going out on loan by now.
But with Toni Martinez having only just returned after his spell on loan at Spanish Second Division side Real Valladolid he is a new face the boss wants to take a look at.
Marcus Browne has suffered an ankle injury and Pellegrini is hoping he will recover in time for him to take a look at him this weekend at Preston or Aston Villa next Wednesday evening.
With time to make his mind up on those and the others within the squa, the manager won’t be making any final decisions on who goes out on loan and who stays with at the club until after the pre-season friendly against Villa.
The remainder of the Hammers under 23s who failed to make the first team’s training squad have travelled to Slovakia where they have a training camp set up whichincludes a couple of games against local opposition.
It’s been 39 years since I last went to see West Ham play (We beat Leicester 3:2 in 1979 if I remember correctly), but I’ve the excuse that I moved from Chadwell Heath to Lancaster shortly after. But Preston is only 20 mins down the road so I’ll be heading to Deepdale to stand and give the boys a shout of encouragement.