It was half-term for many schools in east London last week, and that gave the youngest members of West Ham United's Academy the chance to spend some extra time at Chadwell Heath.
As part of half-term week, the Hammers' Under-9s, Under-10s and Under-11s were treated to a training session with the lead coaches of the Academy’s highest phases.
U23s lead coach Dmitri Halajko was on hand to deliver a session to the foundation groups, alongside assistant U23s coach Steve Potts and U18s lead coach Kevin Keen.
Both the U23s and U18s have made excellent starts to the season and sessions such as these could prove to be invaluable for West Ham’s youngest players in the coming years.
It furthers what we are tying to build here at Chadwell Heath: a connection between all the age groups.
Ricky Martin
Academy Manager Ricky Martin was also around to offer advice, and stressed the importance of building a “one club” mentality throughout the Academy of Football.
“The younger players really enjoyed the experience of being coached by Dmitri [Halajko], Steve [Potts] and Kevin [Keen],” he said. “It furthers what we are trying to build here at Chadwell Heath, which is a connection between all the age groups, showing that we are all working towards the same goal.”
Introducing summer recruits, Halajko and Keen to the foundation phase of the Academy was also a key objective of the sessions, according to Martin.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for our older phase coaches to identify and understand the quality of players that we have in the Academy.”
The U9s, U10s, and U11s thoroughly enjoyed their time with each of the coaches - and you can watch a snippet of the session above.
