I can’t even begin to imagine the outrage that this story will produce; Sports Mail are reporting that West Ham striker Elliot Lee could be leaving the club at the end of the season.
The striker’s contract is up this summer and reports suggests talk of a new one has stalled.
I ask you this, though: Is Lee, who is without doubt our most exciting youngster at the club, purely that because the standard of our youth is dropping? He’s hardly a Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand or Joe Cole, is he?
Nowadays, fans get their knickers in a knot for the smallest things that there really is no need to be outraged for.
Of course, the day will come where we release someone who does achieve greatness but until then, the list that includes Robert Hall, Zavon Hines and Junior Stanislas will remain.
Fat sam is killing our club no youngsters have come through our club he hang them out to dry in the fa cup get out of west ham and take the davids with you carrol cost way to much we are in the shit and buck stops with you micheal laudrap please
It’s not Sam’s fault the youth system is failing :S
Sadly despite a good start to the season and a break through looked on the cards Lee has hardly set the World alight since, loan spells being pretty unspectacular. Though not certain, at 19 sadly it looks like he isn’t going to be the star we all hoped.
Problem seems to be we have a good overall standard of young players at the club but none (and I thought 4 or 5 had hopes) seem to have come through this past 18 months as we would have hoped a couple would have done. Certainly not made easy by Big Sams approach and the club’s uncomfortable premiership status but so far none of them are breaking through here or elsewhere. Compare this with Southampton who despite 4 top notch players gone to other clubs have still retained players well above anything we have in recent years. The success of our youth policy over time is a bit more myth than reality for most of my time supporting the club with only a handful of fruitful spells between long barren patches.
What worries me the most is that most of our successes in recent times were from other’s backyards including, Cole, Carrick and Ferdinand while our own fertile area has generated gems like Sol Campbell, A Cole, Terry, Parlour, Chris Hughton, Stewart Robson even Defoe (initially) who all signed with others. As teams ring fence talent from their own areas now its more important that we pick up talent from our own back yard and unlike Southampton with top teams surrounding us that is a real problem which again is why we need to become a more attractive option with a higher profile.
Typical west ham. The academy of football? What use is that if we sell every player worth putting a shirt on.
Although not confirmed, this isn’t the best news that I’ve heard but there are probably many other factors involved, some that I’m aware of and some that I’m not.
Our recent position hasn’t made it easy to blood youngsters, which could cause more harm than good to their development.
But what I will say is that if West Ham are looking to encourage youth progression through the “Academy”, they will need to show prospective talents and their parents that there is a regular path to the first team. Sometimes if you show faith in youth players and let them have their head, it is rewarded ten fold in player progression and development.
The problem with writers like yourself and other fans who discount guys who have previous left as rubbish is that you believe what they have done after leaving West Ham means it wasn’t a mistake to let them leave. There is absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind that Hines, Sears and especially Stanislas were very talented individuals whilst at West Ham and had the potential to push on. If they hadn’t had left who knows what would have happened. Leaving likely stalled their development and especially with strikers, success is based on building a rapport with those around you so leaving guys you knew and did well with can be detrimental, just look at Torres. So to suggest that because they haven’t done well after leaving West Ham means they wouldn’t have been very good for us if they had stayed is mindless. Stanislas has since proven his worth to a certain extent at Burnley I might add so pretty harsh to be putting him in the same flop category of Sears and Hines, perhaps due to a lack of research on your behalf.
Of course, I am not saying that they would have been world beaters for us if they had stayed just that saying “oh they were shit when they left” does not in the slightest mean they weren’t good for us and wouldn’t have continued to be good for us if they had stayed.
Without a doubt our most promising youngster? You forgetting Ravel?
Good striker, but will never thrieve under Big Sam, as he is to small and light weight for Sam’s systems of play.
We cannot keep expecting our academy to keep producing fantastic young players. That’s life.