By Simon Leyland
Finally something to smile about, as West Ham`s youngsters pummelled Southampton 6-1 to reach the final of the FA Youth Cup.
The older CandH readers will remember that fabulous youth side of 1999 which had the likes of Joe Cole, Michael Carrick et al waltz their way to winning the cup with some of the most exhilarating football of that season
Well, it looks like we may have unearthed some more gems who will hopefully be playing for the first team in the future. Perhaps that was the reason why there were THIRTY SIX scouts at the match.
Inevitably their eyes would have been drawn to our 18 year old goal machine Divin Mubama, who stole the show with a devastating hat-trick.
Mind you, he was the only one who had previous experience of playing at the London Stadium as last month he scored his first West Ham goal in the Europa Conference League with a cheeky backheel.
All three of his goals were that of a classic centre-forward, first arriving to meet Kodua’s cross from a few yards out before finishing when he was one-on-one past Mohamed Adli and then tapping into an empty net after George Earthy’s effort. He could have had a fourth but his volley was kept out.
He has been on fire recently …since his first-team debut in November in Bucharest where he got an assist, The England youth international has scored 29 goals for the Under-21s and the under-18s, including eight in the Youth Cup.
Whilst I am giving out plaudits, a doff of the hat to the tireless Kevin Keen who has put together a really classy looking side, but as this the home of the “Academy of Football”, we should expect nothing less!
Going back to Mubama, I suggested in a previous post that due to our spectacular lack of goals it may be worth throwing him into the mix. But the rigid way Moyes is operating at the moment, I would be very surprised.
But with Antonio’s contract up next summer and Scamacca struggling with life at West Ham, there is an obvious route to playing in the first-team for the young lad.