OPINION
West Ham United welcomed back the majority of their squad to the first day of pre-season on Monday morning before Manuel Pellegrini and the players jetted out to Switzerland for a 12-day training camp.
Leaving behind those who have been on international duty over the summer, the squad will fly out to Bad Ragaz near the Liechtenstein border to build up fitness before the start of the season in mid-August, as reported on the club’s website.
Most of those travelling with the club are established first-team names, but there are those in the party who are being given a massive opportunity to shine and press their claims for a senior squad place next season.
Among those names is Josh Cullen, the academy graduate who spent the first half of last season on loan at Bolton before returning to sit on the bench in the closing months of the campaign.
Cullen has been with the Hammers since he was nine years old, progressing through the youth set-up before making his first-team debut three years ago in 2015.
Since then however Cullen has managed just nine senior appearances for the Irons, and has embarked on moderately successful loan spells at Bradford and Bolton.
The young midfielder is now 22 years old, and is surely approaching last chance saloon at his boyhood club as he looks to establish himself in the first-team.
It is a surprise in many ways to hear that Cullen will join the squad in Switzerland, with many expecting he would be sold on this summer, and he must now do all he can to impress Pellegrini in training after being handed this important chance.
There will be little space in the squad for deadwood under the watchful eye of Pellegrini, and Cullen therefore must give a good account of himself in Switzerland.
If he fails to do so, there is little doubt that the club will look to offload him for good this summer.
