da cassino： With a new manager comes new opportunity. That’s how to put a positive spin on upheaval at a club like West Ham United which, prior to the departure of Slaven Bilic, had been suffering from poor performances and poor results, to the extent that there are worries about their ability to survive in the English Premier League.
da realbet： David Moyes may not be the kind of unifying appointment that could have galvanised the West Ham support, but a new era is always an exciting thing, with thoughts turning to what kind of direction the Hammers should take in the months and years to come if they’re to achieve their ambitions of becoming a club capable of mixing it with the division’s best.
The temptation of course, especially in the modern Premier League era, is to open the cheque book and turn to the transfer market for inspiration. While adding selective quality is always a welcome thing and something the club badly need, the Irons are simply not going to be able to buy their way out of trouble, in the short or the long term.
The way forward is to build a sustainable model that takes inspiration from the very heart and soul of the club, West Ham must rebuild their reputation as the Academy of Football.
A forgotten legacy
While West Ham’s reputation as the country’s premium factory of talent stretches all the way back to the 1960s, you don’t even have to look beyond the Premier League era to understand that great success can come from blooding talented youngsters into the first team.
From the mid-1990s through to the early-2000s, the Hammers were a hotbed of recognisable English talent that went on to forge successful careers for themselves in the decades that followed. Players like Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Frank Lampard, Jermaine Defoe and Michael Carrick all made their senior debuts for the club and they all spent significant time in the Hammers first-team before eventually moving on, getting chances to impress that simply don’t exist in the current Hammers set-up.
Somewhere in the years since, with the pressures of Premier League football greater than ever, West Ham lost their way in terms of nurturing home grown talent from the academy and giving them a chance in the senior side. The players in recent years to truly shine over an extended period can be counted on one hand. Slaven Bilic often offered glimpses of young talent but never really trusted any of them to get the job done in the top-flight. Debuts have become ceremonial rather than a true sign that players are ready to step up and make their mark, with one or two exceptions.
As an example of their faltering philosophy, recent youth stand-out Reece Oxford emerged as a raw but real prospect but instead of being trusted to grow and learn in the Hammers set-up, he was sent off to the Bundesliga to sit on the bench at Borussia Monchengladbach. It’s a decision that has ultimately cost the youngster half a season of football with his loan reportedly set to be cut short, with the player returning to London in December.
West Ham simply don’t have the luxury of farming their top talents out to other teams, these youngsters should be learning their trade at the London Stadium.
The future
David Moyes is in the process of assembling his backroom staff and has already confirmed the appointment of Stuart Pearce as one of his assistants, perhaps a sign that youth football is back on the agenda at the club. Pearce of course was the England U21s manager for six years and spent time at the Hammers during their last golden age of excellent youth players in the late nineties, albeit at the opposite end of the professional footballer age spectrum. If anyone is qualified to bring through young talent at the club, it may be him.
There are green shoots that some young players could make the grade at the club with Irish teenager Declan Rice, Nathan Holland, Sead Haksabanovic and Domingos Quina all talented teenagers who have gotten minutes in the senior side already this season. With the first team crying out for inspiration and a never say die attitude, perhaps turning to the non-established stars of their U23 side is the answer to give everyone at the club a boost.
Supporters pride themselves on supporting a club that has nurtured some of the finest talent the country has ever seen and in this new Premier League era, with youngsters come from far and wide to try and make in England, they can lead the way again. Perhaps it’s only then that they’ll finally get to where they want to be. The current model has failed them and it’s time try a new approach.