Westley exclusive as three young Irons move on

In his latest exclusive blog for CandH, Terry Westley discusses the outward moves of thee youngsters who grew up under him as the former academy director at the club – Nathan Holland, Conor Coventry and midfielder Joe Powell. Nathan will be continuing his education at Oxford whilst  Conor has moved on loan to Lincoln City while some were surprised that Joe made  a permanent move to Burton Albion.

Tel was talking to Hughie Southon

It was good to see the manager make some early decisions on the three youngsters – all of whom were needing to see their immediate futures settled one way or another.

Nathan has been the most discussed of the three and I think the decision to loan him out is the right one. He needs regular first team football at a League club as he hasn’t yet managed to make a really forceful challenge on the Hammers first team squad.

I fully expect him to flourish at Oxford and come back a playerunder consideration by David Moyes every week next season – make no mistake he is going to become a top player.

It was good news that Conor Coventry signed a new deal with the club. He’s a very good player and eventually has every chance  of making the first team squad but like Nathan needs regular football at a higher level.

Both of them have gone as far as they can at Under 23 level where the game quite frankly is just too easy for them. Good decisions in both cases.

Joe’s challenge is a bit different of course. He was not going to make it as a Hammers first team regular and the decision to sell whilst disappointing him was probably the right one. He now has to establish himself as a good professional and force his way back up the divisions.

I’d like to see Martin Samuelsen get a club or force his way into David’s thinking. There has been talk of Hull City being interested and I would love to see him back in the sort of form he showed on his first loan to Peterborough. Trust me that lad has serious abilities.