Terry Westley with the very latest news from the West Ham United Academy
Hello everyone,
While the first team have been away in Dubai on a warm-weather training camp during a break in the fixture list, it has been a busy time at the Academy.
The Development Squad travelled to Sunderland in the Barclays U21 Premier League on Monday evening, but unfortunately were beaten 3-0 by a strong home side.
They have seven league games remaining and we will continue to blood young players and give them experience of Development Squad football as the season approaches its conclusion.
With the first team away, we were able to use the facilities at Chadwell Heath during the early part of the week. It was really pleasing to be able to come to Chadwell and to work with one or two of the first-team players who did not travel and combine that with training with the younger players.
It was great to see a player of Alex Song’s experience working with players like 15-year-old Vashon Neufville, the England Under-16 left-back. That can only help everybody.
Alex said some nice things about the sessions we put on and how they have helped him to raise his fitness levels. He and the other seniors who joined us gave 100 per cent at all times and that’s the really important thing from a coaching point of view. They’ve had four hard days, on Wednesday they are having a day off and then the senior players are back on Thursday.
Alex was helping the young players through the session but also demanding a lot of them, which is what we wanted. He wants to improve his fitness and hopefully we have helped him with that. I can only praise his attitude and speak highly about him when the first team staff get back.
From the youngsters’ point of view, they can only dream or think about playing with a player who has played at Arsenal and Barcelona. To share a pitch with someone like that is great for everyone. It’s great for all of them who were out there. You can only learn from experiences like that.
The senior players took it seriously which is great. We often integrate the squads to help the first team as and when it is necessary, but the last few days gave the whole squad a chance to train alongside senior professionals.
While the first team have been away in Dubai on a warm-weather training camp during a break in the fixture list, it has been a busy time at the Academy.
The Development Squad travelled to Sunderland in the Barclays U21 Premier League on Monday evening, but unfortunately were beaten 3-0 by a strong home side.
They have seven league games remaining and we will continue to blood young players and give them experience of Development Squad football as the season approaches its conclusion.
With the first team away, we were able to use the facilities at Chadwell Heath during the early part of the week. It was really pleasing to be able to come to Chadwell and to work with one or two of the first-team players who did not travel and combine that with training with the younger players.
It was great to see a player of Alex Song’s experience working with players like 15-year-old Vashon Neufville, the England Under-16 left-back. That can only help everybody.
Alex said some nice things about the sessions we put on and how they have helped him to raise his fitness levels. He and the other seniors who joined us gave 100 per cent at all times and that’s the really important thing from a coaching point of view. They’ve had four hard days, on Wednesday they are having a day off and then the senior players are back on Thursday.
Alex was helping the young players through the session but also demanding a lot of them, which is what we wanted. He wants to improve his fitness and hopefully we have helped him with that. I can only praise his attitude and speak highly about him when the first team staff get back.
From the youngsters’ point of view, they can only dream or think about playing with a player who has played at Arsenal and Barcelona. To share a pitch with someone like that is great for everyone. It’s great for all of them who were out there. You can only learn from experiences like that.
The senior players took it seriously which is great. We often integrate the squads to help the first team as and when it is necessary, but the last few days gave the whole squad a chance to train alongside senior professionals.
To share a pitch with someone like Alex Song is great for everyone. It’s great for all of them who were out there. You can only learn from experiences like that
The Development Squad’s home match with Manchester City on Friday has been postponed, but the Under-18s return to action on Saturday morning, when they host Brighton & Hove Albion in their first Play-Off round fixture.
We’ve tried to do two things with the U18s this season. We want to be competitive and we were only two points off finishing in the top four. The horrible 2-1 home defeat by Norwich City in February was the one game that we should have won. We dictated the game, missed opportunities and we should have won and that would have put us in the top four.
However, we are in the middle group with Liverpool, Wolves, Derby and Sunderland too, which should be good fixtures.
We also need to remember that we have had more U16s play for the U18s than ever before, as well as a high number of schoolboys playing for the U21s. The boy Joe Powell played again on Monday night. Fast-tracking players and really testing them will be the aim for the seven games coming up.
On Saturday we’ve got Brighton at Rush Green and I see Vashon, Powell and Declan Rice starting, along with some of the older players to give us some stability. We’d like to finish strong and do well. I’m intrigued by the young players about how well they’ve done, and I’ve said from day one that we have some talented players here.
I saw our younger teams play Chelsea across a range of age-groups and we were competitive. We were up against one of the best Academies in the country and we matched them.
Come July, when it will have been a year since I joined, everyone will know what we want to achieve and how to go about doing it.
Finally, while the first team may have just returned from the United Arab Emirates, we are sending an U17 squad to the Hazza Bin Zayed International Tournament in Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi, at the end of March.
These tournaments help massively with player development. If you do not play international football, and a lot of players do not, then you do not have many opportunities to play against foreign players.
You could make your first team debut against Sergio Aguero, for example, so it is important our players have previous experience of that and know to handle all the different types of players.
Our various age-groups will be part of ten tours in total – this is a big club and we’ve been welcomed by some of the tournaments. The first one is in Dubai in a few weeks and it should be a great experience for everyone involved, but with a purpose.
In the meantime, we look forward to another busy weekend for West Ham United.
Terry Westley
Academy Manager
We’ve tried to do two things with the U18s this season. We want to be competitive and we were only two points off finishing in the top four. The horrible 2-1 home defeat by Norwich City in February was the one game that we should have won. We dictated the game, missed opportunities and we should have won and that would have put us in the top four.
However, we are in the middle group with Liverpool, Wolves, Derby and Sunderland too, which should be good fixtures.
We also need to remember that we have had more U16s play for the U18s than ever before, as well as a high number of schoolboys playing for the U21s. The boy Joe Powell played again on Monday night. Fast-tracking players and really testing them will be the aim for the seven games coming up.
On Saturday we’ve got Brighton at Rush Green and I see Vashon, Powell and Declan Rice starting, along with some of the older players to give us some stability. We’d like to finish strong and do well. I’m intrigued by the young players about how well they’ve done, and I’ve said from day one that we have some talented players here.
I saw our younger teams play Chelsea across a range of age-groups and we were competitive. We were up against one of the best Academies in the country and we matched them.
Come July, when it will have been a year since I joined, everyone will know what we want to achieve and how to go about doing it.
Finally, while the first team may have just returned from the United Arab Emirates, we are sending an U17 squad to the Hazza Bin Zayed International Tournament in Al-Ain, Abu Dhabi, at the end of March.
These tournaments help massively with player development. If you do not play international football, and a lot of players do not, then you do not have many opportunities to play against foreign players.
You could make your first team debut against Sergio Aguero, for example, so it is important our players have previous experience of that and know to handle all the different types of players.
Our various age-groups will be part of ten tours in total – this is a big club and we’ve been welcomed by some of the tournaments. The first one is in Dubai in a few weeks and it should be a great experience for everyone involved, but with a purpose.
In the meantime, we look forward to another busy weekend for West Ham United.
Terry Westley
Academy Manager