David Moyes will use Monday’s opening pre-season match of the 2023/24 campaign at Boreham Wood to cast his eye over West Ham United’s promising young players.
With the Club’s current senior international players not returning from their summer break until next week, Moyes will enlist the services of a number of young professionals.
Goalkeepers Joseph Anang, 23, and Krisztián Hegyi, 20, will join the vastly experienced Łukasz Fabiański at Meadow Park, with Alphonse Areola absent after being part of France’s squad for their June internationals.
Anang impressed during a loan spell with League of Ireland club St Patrick’s Athletic last season, appearing in the UEFA Europa Conference League, while Hegyi captained West Ham’s development team and earned his maiden call-up for Hungary’s senior squad in March this year.
Full-back Ollie Scarles, 17, centre-back Kaelen Casey, 18, and versatile midfielder Kamarai Swyer, 20 all made impressive first-team debuts in the 3-0 Conference League win at FCSB in Romania in November last year.
Scarles and Casey then went on to star as West Ham’s U18s won the FA Youth Cup and U18 Premier League South division title. Casey scored in the 5-1 FA Youth Cup final win over Arsenal in May, as did two other players who will be in Moyes’ squad at Boreham Wood in forward Gideon Kodua and midfielder George Earthy.
Slightly older than them is 20-year-old centre-back Levi Laing, who made his first-team debut as a substitute in the 4-0 Conference League win over AEK Larnaca in March this year.
Laing’s regular developmental teammate Luizão is a 21-year-old Brazilian defender who joined the Hammers from São Paulo in January and featured regularly for Mark Robson’s side in Premier League 2.
Another Premier League 2 regular and FA Youth Cup winner who will travel to Boreham Wood is centre-forward Divin Mubama, who scored his first senior goal in Claret and Blue in the aforementioned European win over AEK Larnaca at London Stadium in March. The Newham-born forward does not turn 18 until October, but was part of the squad which defeated ACF Fiorentina in Prague to win the Conference League in June.
Another member of Moyes’ squad that night was 19-year-old midfielder Freddie Potts, who made his first-team debut at home to Dinamo Zagreb in the UEFA Europa League in December 2021 and featured twice in the successful Conference League run last season. Combative London-born midfielder Keenan Forson, 21, also debuted against Dinamo Zagreb and completes the dozen youngsters who will travel to face the National League play-off semi-finalists.
With the senior members of Moyes’ squad set to feature for 45 minutes in their first appearances of the pre-season, all 12 could have ample opportunity to impress the manager ahead of the two-match tour to Perth, Australia, which West Ham embark upon on Tuesday afternoon.
