West Ham’s academy team may have gone down 0 – 3 at Brighton last night but the development side of the Hammers’ academy is in good shape. The club are regularly turning out high quality professional youngsters who go onto other Championship or EFL sides. The current crop of youngsters that have played in Nuno’s first team has expanded this season to include Freddie Potts, Ollie Scarles, Fin Herrick, Mohamadou Kanté and Ezra Mayers – all of whom will go on to have successful senior careers.
On the next rung down the ladder are the ‘starlets’ – the teenagers who are next in line for elevation to the under ’21s if they’re not picked off by other clubs first. One such talent is defender Emmanuel Fejokwu, just 16 years old and already having featured in the Hammers’ u18 and u21 sides as well as England’s under 16s.
According to insidefutbol.com, the younger is a ‘priority’ for European giants AC Milan:
“A host of clubs around Europe are keen on him, as the likes of Inter Milan, Club Brugge, Bayer Leverkusen, FC Copenhagen, PSV Eindhoven, Ajax and Utrecht are keeping close tabs on the West Ham talent.
West Ham’s academy still churning out high quality young talent – as the club hope for the emergence of another Declan Rice-like star
AC Milan are impressed by Fejokwu’s qualities and they are working hard to beat the competition to sign the young defender. The Rossoneri themselves have produced world-class talents from their academy over the years, and want to develop him within their system.
Vindication of the Hammers’ academy structure then: Whilst the club keeps churning out young talent that is recognised on a world wide stage, there is indeed hope for the future of our club and of course, the dream of unearthing another DR41-like valuable talent from within the current crop.