Last season, West Ham were one of six Premier League clubs to play no teenagers until Declan Rice came on in the last game of the season. With a huge amount of talent in the youth team at West Ham, I was very interested to listen to what Mark Phillips, academy coach at West Ham, had to say recently about the future of young players at the club.
Phillips was full of praise for Josh Cullen, who won EFL Young Player of the Month while on loan at Bradford last season. Another youngster looking promising is 20-year-old Toni Martinez. A proven goal scorer with 14 goals in 14 appearances for the U23s to secure promotion last season, the sky seems to be the limit for the talented striker.
Other youngsters include Dominigos Quina and Reece Burke who are just as talented and eager to make a name for themselves in the starting line-up.
While we weren’t in enough winning positions to risk dropping points last season, it was too risky to play less experienced members of the squad.
However, this season with new additions to the team, it’s looking likely the youngsters could be getting more game time and chances to prove themselves in the starting 11.
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