In his first press conference as West Ham United’s new Head Coach, Graham Potter didn’t hesitate when asked about the prospect of introducing the Club’s exciting young homegrown talent into the first-team fold.
“The Academy is something that is central to this Club,” declared the new Hammers boss. “I think our supporters like to see players from the Academy pushing into the first team, and I think it can help us in terms of how we identify players and how we think about recruitment. I think the starting point should always be to look at what we’ve already got here.”
Potter wasted little time in backing up his words, handing Ollie Scarles a first senior domestic start just 24 hours later in the FA Cup third-round tie at Aston Villa, before then naming three homegrown players in his first Premier League matchday squad - Scarles and his Academy teammates Kaelan Casey and Lewis Orford included in the 20-man list for a 3-2 win against Fulham at London Stadium.
Not just there to make up the numbers, Scarles was brought on at a crucial juncture in the game, just days after picking up the Man of the Match award at Villa Park, while Orford, at West Ham United since the age of five, was handed his Premier League debut against Crystal Palace just four days later. Part of the U18s squad that won the FA Youth Cup and U18 Premier League South division in 2023, Orford and Scarles have followed in the footsteps of fellow double winner Casey, who has been part of the first-team set-up since pre-season.
“We’ve had really good feedback from the first-team staff,” said U21s lead coach Mark Robson. “When Ollie played up at Aston Villa, the staff were brilliant; they were really pleased with him. He’s stayed in and around the first team. He came on in the following game against Fulham, at a really important time in the game with plenty of work still to do.”
Robson said the graduation of young players to senior football is something that both the new first-team coaching set-up and Academy staff are aligned on.
“The boys have trained really well,” he observed. “There’s communication every day with the first-team staff. It’s really good. They’ve asked us lots of things about the players. They’ve watched training sessions and been to one of the U21s’ games. The response has given every one of our boys a spring in their step. There’s belief in opportunities.”
Reflecting on the FA Youth Cup-winning trio’s progress, Robson continued: “They’ve made huge strides over the last couple of seasons. The opportunity for them now to go over to the first team makes a huge difference for the players. You see them grow, get bigger and stronger. After a month or two, they might come back to you for a session and you can see a huge difference.
“When they’re around the senior players, they see what it’s really like. They get to see how the senior players behave. Aaron Cresswell, for example, is fantastic on the training pitch, always communicating. That rubs off on the younger players. They realise communicating in games is massively encouraged. It’s to help others on the pitch. They get used to the higher speed of the game; you’ve got to be even more tactically astute to cope. The more they experience it, the more adaptable they become.
“Finally, physicality, that’s probably the biggest difference between development and first-team football. They’ve had a taste of it in the EFL Trophy and National League Cup, and have dealt with it very well, but the physicality in the Premier League is huge. There’s no doubt in my mind that those three, plus some of the ones in our current group, are capable of making that jump.”
With a number of U21s players transitioning to the first-team squad, opportunities have subsequently arisen for some of the U18s to make their mark on the development side at Rush Green.
Robson said: “The U18s who’ve joined us have been excellent. The foundations laid by [U18s lead coach] Lauris Coggin and [U18s assistant coach] Zavon Hines and the U18s staff have prepared them well, and they’ve fitted in really well.
“On the second or third day that the first-team staff were in, we had a bit of a game. They wanted a lot of the boys to come across, so straight away there was an opportunity for the younger lads to show what they can do. It was brilliant for them. The energy levels were excellent. It’s rubbed off on them. There’s a clear pathway here for players who excel, and the first-team staff have been great about giving them opportunities to showcase their ability early on.”
Away from Rush Green, a handful of Academy players have been relishing first-team opportunities out on loan. Freddie Potts has been flying at Portsmouth, making 21 Championship starts, while Callum Marshall has ten goal contributions in 28 appearances in all competitions for a Huddersfield Town outfit challenging for immediate promotion back to the second tier. Youth Cup-winning captain Gideon Kodua is in his second loan spell at Wycombe Wanderers, also challenging for promotion from League One, while George Earthy is with Championship Play-Off contenders Bristol City. Patrick Kelly is with Doncaster Rovers in League Two, and Mason Terry is No1 goalkeeper at National League South club AFC Hornchurch.
“Every week we get a round-up of what’s gone on,” Robson explained. “Freddie’s played the majority of the games and played really well. He’s moved up a league into the Championship and he’s excelling again.
“Callum’s played the majority of the games. I’m not sure whether he’s been getting as many chances [to score in recent matches], but when he does, he’s taking them. It’s a good loan for him because he’s playing all the time.
“Gideon Kodua has gone to Wycombe. They had him there last year and they obviously really like him to bring him back in again and playing him in different positions. Wycombe have been really good with Gideon and Freddie [who won Wycombe’s Player of the Season award in 2023/24] and are in constant communication with us.
“George has not had as many starts as you’d hope for, but he’s always looked bright when he’s come off the bench. It will be a great experience being around a first-team environment.
“Patrick’s had a good run of starts with a mix of appearances off the bench, which has given him a decent amount of game time to build on.
“Mason Terry is having a fantastic season. He’s been brilliant. A couple of my friends are supporters at Hornchurch and they’re sending me texts every week saying ‘your goalkeeper is amazing’. He’s such a great lad as well. He’s got a lot of admirers at the moment, not just at Hornchurch.”
So, as Robson points out, the opportunities are there for West Ham’s aspiring Academy graduates to make their mark, whether that be at Rush Green or with their respective loan clubs - motivated by the knowledge that the door to Graham Potter’s first-team squad is most certainly open…
