“It's brilliant to see. West Ham had the brilliant FA Youth Cup winning side [in 2023], and then their European campaigns which blooded those young players, which we covered [on TNT Sports], and you could see them come in and all of them did really well.
“I saw Ollie [Scarles] come on against Chelsea and he took that ball out of the air with the outside of his left foot. He just was so mature in how he played, only in those few moments, and that was something I looked at.
“Then the next step is to start playing Premier League games, proper games like Arsenal away. You ask: ‘Can they handle that?’ and Ollie's done brilliantly.”
If anyone knew exactly what they were watching when Ollie Scarles caught the eye at Stamford Bridge and Emirates Stadium in West Ham United’s recent Premier League fixtures with Chelsea and Arsenal, it was Joe Cole.
Back in 1999, it was Cole who was making his first strides into senior football having graduated from the Academy of Football as an FA Youth Cup winner.
Two-and-a-half decades later, Scarles is doing likewise and the challenge for the teenage wing-back is to overcome the challenges every young professional footballer faces, the outstanding Cole included, and establish himself at first-team level.
“There are lots and lots of talented players around the Academy and it's what the Club's built on, and it's just fantastic,” the former Hammers and England midfielder continued.
“The next step now is just to keep playing. This might not be a case of ‘right, you're in and you're going to be West Ham's left-back for the next ten years’. You might come out the side again, then might go in again, so you just keep improving and keep your feet on the floor.”
When Cole was emerging, he had a manager in Harry Redknapp who was never afraid to give young players opportunities, and it was then up to those players to prove themselves.
Many did, including future England internationals Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Cole himself, and the former West Ham captain believes that current Head Coach Graham Potter is another who will not be afraid to give youth a chance.
“The more I think about it, Graham Potter and West Ham is just a perfect fit,” he enthused, having met the Head Coach while visiting Rush Green training ground to film a TNT Sports feature with captain Jarrod Bowen. “I think his style of football, first of all, works really well. He has his own identity, and I think it marries up with how West Ham want to play.
“I think he's going to bring the players in and he's a teacher, he's an educator, so I think having him for these young players, he's going to be able to bring them into the squad and the fans love that and that galvanises them and then all of a sudden, things are just looking smoother and smoother.”
