OPINION
West Ham United announced on their official website on Tuesday that youngster Martin Samuelsen has had his loan at Norwegian side FK Haugesund extended until the end of December.
However, the Hammers are surely merely delaying the inevitable, here. Samuelsen, it would seem, is probably never going to make the breakthrough at first team level for Manuel Pellegrini’s side.
The Chilean has been remarkably open to giving youth a chance since arriving in east London. He’s promoted the likes of Grady Diangana and Ben Johnson to the first team, while handing Declan Rice a central role at the club.
So it says a lot that he has never given Samuelsen the chance to make an impact at the London Stadium. In fact, successive managers have appeared unwilling to take a chance on the 22-year-old.
The Norwegian has played just 32 minutes of first team action since joining the club four years ago, with them coming in Europa League qualifying during the 2015/16 season.
Whenever he’s had a loan spell at a decent level, like with Blackburn Rovers or Burton Albion, he has decidedly failed to inspire. To be fair to him, he’s done well since joining Haugesund, but that’s hardly a glowing recommendation of his talents.
Clearly, the young man has mere months to save his Hammers career. If he can catch fire in his homeland and produce a number of top class performances, then there’s a chance he’ll return in the New Year and be given a chance by Pellegrini.
However, that’s a long shot, and his success or otherwise in Norway isn’t likely to do much to help him get ahead of the coterie of talented attacking midfielders at the London Stadium.
