Wish he was back in the claret and blue of West Ham?

On Saturday a certain Junior Stanislas returned to Upton Park for our claret and blue adversaries, Eddie Howe’s Burnley. Stanislas a product of the academy never really set the world alight when he got his chances in the Hammers first team, his mediocre football and unimpressive 47 appearances in four seasons provoked a summer move to Turf Moor on a three year deal (he must like playing in claret and blue!).

The Saturday just gone, Burnley made the trip down south to the East End of London to face a formidable West Ham side. As fate would have it, it was Stanislas’ assist for Chris McCann’s headed goal that would prove to be the kick start of the Lancashire club’s revival.

Stanislas proved his worth in Saturdays contest but reviewing the game the question has aroused; do we regret selling the youngster? Well the answer surely has to be no. Whether we like it or not it’s fair to say that Stanislas was in no way a successful product of the renowned academy and he never looked like he was going to cement a full time place in the Irons starting eleven.

As a right sided player his position is very much taken by Faubert and the chances of him playing first team football for us now are slim. Junior Stanislas sadly is part of the academy coupe containing his Burnley team mate Zavon Hines. Both players I believe would never have lived up to their academy tag. By no means successful academy products, their talent was just a little too mediocre. However I deem it fair that they were given their chance as they were promising players who came out of an academy that is arguably one of the best in England. Sometimes the transition from playing for an academy side in front of a little crowd to playing first team, high league football in front of 1000’s of people is just too much.

All credit to Burnley’s number 11 he has succeeded were many fail in becoming a professional footballer and I hope he does well at Burnley (all be it not against us again) however we shouldn’t regret selling him. The contribution that Stanislas could have made to us would just never have been enough. With no space for him in the first team that leaves him either on the bench or in the development squad where at 21 he wouldn’t have grown much more. He did the right thing by leaving for Turf Moor for first team action, and where does that leave West Ham? All I can say is that we aren’t exactly missing him.

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