For West Ham United U18s, a trip to Arsenal will open their U18s Premier League South campaign.
The young Hammers will take on their London rivals on Saturday 11 August, with kick-off at 11am, and seek to open their league campaign with a valuable three points - as well as some bragging rights!
With many of the group of U18s who won the U18 Premier League South and FA Youth Cup double last season moving up to U21s football for the campaign ahead, a new crop of talent will now have the chance to work with Kevin Keen and the rest of his coaching staff at Chadwell Heath.
West Ham Under-18 assistant coach Gerard Prenderville said: “It has been a real transition with players making the step up to PL2 but for us the goal remains the same: how many players can we get playing at U21s and how many of them can we push on to first team debuts.
"Obviously, last year was incredible but the goal was to get players in the first team and U21s and that’s the same goal again this season. It all starts this weekend, so it is great to get back going. We are all looking forward to it."
Ahead of their league opener, a busy pre-season schedule also took the U18s to Prague to compete in the CEE Cup last month.
And while the U19s competition proved to be a stern test for our young Irons, the group competed admirably against Palmeiras, Sparta Prague and Al-Ain, taking plenty of lessons into the new season too.
It is an experience that will hold the U18s in a good stead ahead of the new campaign, according to Prenderville.
He added: “We were away in Loughborough as well which was really good and then we went to play an U19 competition in the Czech Republic. Yes, we were a slightly younger side but it was a fantastic trip and the stuff that we did with the players was really beneficial.
“They played against some physical teams, and we held our own. It is just about getting it right in the final third over the next weeks.
"The second-year scholars played a lot of football throughout the course of the season and had a lot of exposure already to this level. And the first years, a new group, are a really talented too.
"There has been a real buzz in pre-season, but we just want to get it going now."
