I think the major talking point of this season has been the arrival of so many academy graduates on the scene: Reid, Collison, Tomkins, Sears, Stanislas, Payne, Hines, N’Gala, Spense, Widdowson and Stech have all at least appeared on the bench; but who else is making waves amongst the juniors?
Traditionally we don’t do very well in the reserve league, but many of the above mentioned played a big part in our finishing second last season. This year we sit third, with a team made up mainly of the youth team. N’Gala has formed a solid partnership with Eyjolfson at the back, where Oliver Lee has recently shown his father Rob’s adaptability by filling in at right back - he’s usually a midfielder. If we are not already blessed enough at centre half, Matthew Fry is a left footer who has played well at left back.
Two young wingers who have benefitted from Zola’s wish to improve players adaptability are Danny Kearns, a creative N.Irish lad, and Anthony Edgar, a left winger who recently came on to play at the point of the diamond and score a good goal when Stanislas got a hat trick. Bajner is improving and last week the best player on the pitch against Stoke reserves was Zavon Hines, given our problems up front I think he may well get a place on the bench this weekend. Add to those Jordan Brown, Ryan O’Neill, Georg Grasser and several younger lads, Okus, Montano, Sanchez, and the future looks bright.
Of course most of them won’t make it at the very top level, but many will have professional careers, which should make it even more likely that promising youngsters will want to come to the Boleyn. Apparently the 15 and 16 year olds are an exceptional bunch and we have already seen Robert Hall announce his arrival with goals for the reserves.
The future's bright, the future's Claret & Blue!
34 comments:
(spurs fan)....can a hammer please tell me what all the fuss about the hammer kids is for?...your academy side currently sit 5th, nearly 30 points behind group leaders arsenal, in premier academy league group A....spurs are top of group B, on 54 points and currently in the Bellinzona Tournament, where we have just beaten barcelona to reach the final, and will play sporting lisbon..im not having a dig here, im just making a point. spurs aparantly have a shit academy (according to hammers) but were in the final of the bellinzona and top of our academy group in the prem....but all i ever hear is the spammers go on about their kids?
Look at the England squad mate. How many West Ham graduates and how many from Tottenham? The point is, we develop them, at Tottenham they fall by the wayside. Again, I'm not being chippy here - the problem with Tottenham is that you always want instant success, instead of trying to build towards it. The sacking of Jol summed up Spurs. Look at him at Hamburg. An iffy start and you were off looking for a new manager, having meetings with Oneday and undermining Jol in the process. The same happens with your kids. No patience, they have an iffy game and that's it, out. It seems that without a big price tag, a guy doesn't have a peg in the Tottenham dressing room. So, the excitement is that we will give the kids a chance and maybe produce England players. Your lot will probably end up in the Fizzy Pop if they are lucky. Shame, but true.
"look at the england squad mate"....but the point is im looking at the hammers academy!!!! the players you are refering to are from your past...im talkin about the present...why are the hammers so far behind arsenal in group A, if they are so good? if the hammers academy is so good?....and why are crappy spurs top of group B, and in final of a european tournament, beating barcelona (the best academy in the world) along the way....the argument you pose, is like the when when west ham say "we won the world cup"...jesus lads, come on...im talking 2009...academy teams.
*is like the one when west ham say*
and apart from spurs current academy team who are doing great things, what of capello's recent words, about the 3 young players he sees as the future of england...joe hart...theo walcott....and our tom huddlestone.......i see a spurs player in there (he joined at 18, and has come on fantastic) but i dont see a west ham youngster in that line up?
Spurs are obsessed with all things WESTHAM @ the moment aren`t they!!!
This post has nothing to do with that shite team in Arsenal but still they have to come on to a WESTHAM site & give us their tuppence worth,
You can fuck off now Spurs, go away, come back next season when we meet again ffs...
Hang on Anonymous, the Spurs fans are welcome to their points of view. Mind your language please.
Let's deal with Arsenal first. Yes they do develop young players but, until recently, not many have been English have they? As an England fan, I want to see English clubs bringing through English talent.
I hope Huddlestone is as good as you claim mate but he is not a Tottenham kid is he. He had played 88 games for Dearby before you bought him - that's two full seasons! Find a kid of your own, don't claim players that others have developed. His peg has £3m on it in the dressing room!
With regard to league tables, developing kids is not about winning, it is about letting kids make mistakes and learning from those mistakes. You can take two approaches to youth football. You can put the team ethic first and squeeze individuality out of players, or you can say, never mind tactics and results, go out there and play. Maybe that's why we bring through so many players - because we let them play!
is that your response???...cant handle the truth i see...have alook at the premier league academy table mate....west ham kids, my arse!
Yes that is my response. It is a bit more informed than yours! Many of our kids are in the first team squad which means that the next generation down are competing with your older boys. Has that occurred to you?
Maybe a little theory could go in to why the West Ham Academy team are not top of the league.....
Arsenal snap up the best youngsters from all over Europe aged 14-18 on pre-contracts and nurture them through the youth team, It is no wonder that they are doing so well.
West Ham on the other hand are mainly developing home grown youngsters, and also due to the size of our squad, many of these players are playing U15, U16, U17, U18, and reserve team games each week, with the odd appearance on the bench for the first team as well.
3-5 games a week is enough to tire even the most enthusiastic youngster out.
S***s youth players do not make up the majority of the reserve team due to poor signings like Rocha, Bentley, Gilberto, Cudicini and promising players who couldn't cut it in the Prem like Dos Santos, Gunter, Taarabt, Prince-Boateng and Campbell taking up the majority of the places, some of which are thankfully out on loan now so that they can get a chance to play and develop properly.
Also West Ham's Academy League features 5 Premiership teams, and S***s' only has 2.
Could you please care to name me just 5 players brought through from scratch by Spurs in the last 10 years that have played for the first team. (Ledley King made his debut 10 years ago, so you cannot include him.
Something that has not been mentioned here is that one of the reasons that our youth team is not doing as well as we might hope is that a lot of our youngsters are playing for the reserves and first team - therefore taking them away from the youth team... (something that I am pretty proud of)
who.
who.
and who?
Spurs kids are in the final of an international tournament having just beaten Barcas kids.
Tottenhams kids lead their academy group.
Are you mental?
Youre kids wouldnt make our acadamy sides bench.
We have Taraabt, Obika, Bostock, Parrett all on the fringes of the first team.
even Lennon, Huddlestone, Bale arent much older.
West Ham kids!
LOL Taraabt, Lennon, Huddlestone and Bale are not Tottenham youngsters, you bought them all!
At some point, they will be re-enacting the Dead Parrot Monty Python Sketch. "Look, it is a deceased player, look, he's nailed to the bench!" Nailed? No need, just use the Bostock! As for Obika Wan Kenobi, I don't fancy his chances without a light Sabre! If any of these "kids" break through, get back to us. Didn't see any on the team sheet on Saturday!
you spuds fans are so deluded, the point is Spuds better make sure they acheive great things soon i.e, Champions League, FA cup, trophies like these. My point is that for years spuds have been trying to buy success for ages and lets face it you still cant justify all that money being spent and only have a carling cup to show for it, but what hurts spuds fans the most is that no matter what they try and do and how much money you spend your club are still on the same level as little old WEST HAM UNITED with no money.
You may win little cups here and there and win reserves games against barcalona etc etc but my dear fickle little spuds buddy west ham are still on your level but with more potential lots more potential bags of potential and we are obviously improving, last year you beat us 4-0 in your back yard look at the 2 squads then and look at them now
Tottenham: Robinson, Hutton, Dawson, Woodgate (Tainio 77), Chimbonda, Lennon, Zokora, Huddlestone, Malbranque (Gilberto 58), Berbatov, Keane (Bent 69).
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Boateng.
Goals: Berbatov 8, 11, Gilberto 85, Bent 90.
West Ham: Green, Neill, Ferdinand, Spector, McCartney, Ljungberg (Pantsil 71), Parker (Noble 76), Mullins, Boa Morte, Ashton (Cole 77), Zamora.
Subs Not Used: Wright, Solano.
Sent Off: Boa Morte (44).
Booked: Boa Morte, Ljungberg.
(now),
Tottenham Hotspur Team: Gomes, Corluka, Woodgate, King, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Huddlestone, Jenas, Modric, Bent, Keane.
Tottenham Hotpsur Substitutes: Cudicini, Bale, Zokora, Bentley, Pavlyuchenko, Dawson, Chimbonda.
West Ham Utd Team: Green, Collins, Tomkins, Upson, Ilunga, Stanislas, Neill, Noble, Boa Morte, Tristan, Di Michele.
West Ham Utd Substitutes: Lastuvka, Lopez, Dyer, Nsereko, Sears, Payne, N'Gala.
right now you have seen all that look at how weak our team is at the momment, without Cole,Behrami, collison, parker, Kovac, ASHTON
now my point is your first squad could only just about beat our injury ravished patched up team 1 nill you shoud be ashamed where west ham can hold there heads high for the improvement we have made and the way our youngsters can hang with the so called big boys.
id love to see how spuds would cope with the same sort of injuries, but when i think about it maybe you would cope quite well you have a decent squad a good size squad, but i and many hammers fans are looking at the big picture, we have seen a dramatic u turn this season and and direct improvement, no more selling of our decent players, the team are playing lovely football, and we now have alarge and dangerous crop of youngers who can come in for the first team and play nearly as well and still keep our shape and play the lovely football like Arsenal. Spuds all west ham need are some decent owners who will buy us our 20 goal a season striker a few other signings and spuds then we will see, we have all the right things in place our potential is totally huge more so than spuds and that is what spuds are scared of . we could potentially acheive bigger and better things then spuds even when you should have moved on and should of been challenging for titles campions league place etc yeeeeeaaaars ago.
Right now west ham are your biggest threats, where it should be arsenal the mighty mighty gunners who west ham are now modleing ourselves on. YOu should be on arsenal web sites not west hams but i suppose that would be punching way above your weight.
COYI THE FUTURE LOOKS TASTY what an improvement, have spuds improved...? no they are still as strong as they usually are just sprinkle in a little relegation battle on top. lol lol
You tell them EssexIron!
And so what if our youngsters are not top of their respective leagues, do you reall y honestly beleive that that means anything you muppet. Cant you spuds ever think outside the box, youngsters are just learning. How can i put in in a way that you spuds fans can understand......
OK lets just say that the youngsters (and not just west hams im talking in general) are currrently going to school to learn how to play football, they are learning. Learning is the important word here. so dont watch the reserve league positions and then think that because so and so are top and these lot are bottom you can see who the best players are....dont be so dumb. They learn and try to improve them seleves so that they are ready to come into the 1st team when called upon which we always do. can spuds say that. remember sears debut GOAL!!!
remember the other weak against sunderland Stanislas debut GOAL!!!
have you seen james tomkins performances and has now nearly cemented his place in the 1st team. Noble, collison.....come on geezer WEST HAM are showing you hte way....Beautiful ...
West ham are we excited about the future under the amazing ZOLA & Clarke, hell yeahhhhhh.....
Spuds are you excited under Harry .....Hell yeah was you excited over 1 day ......Hell Yeah, was you excited over , The amazing Martin Yol.......Hell No ( you should have)....
REAL TALK!!
Essex mate, if you fancy conributing an article to the site, drop it through as an attachment to the email above. Thanks for the passionate riposte to our Cockyfool friends!
Cheers Hammers, I may just do that.
nice one.
1.Spurs youth are better than West Hams
2.West Hams have mostly come through the academy
3.Spurs have mostly been bought.
4. The only one of these facts that mean anything is 1.
Facefacts.
1) No ex Tottenham kids in the England squad.
2) No Tottenahm kids, apart from King, in the Tottenham team on Saturday.
3) No Tottenham kids anywhere near the first team.
If that doesn't upset you, you can't be a true fan. Even Chelsea have given an outing to a kid this season! Shame on Tottenham!
This is a quote that sums up everything Spurs...
"Right now west ham are your biggest threats, where it should be arsenal the mighty mighty gunners who west ham are now modelling ourselves on. You should be on an Arsenal web sites not West hams but I suppose that would be punching way above your weight..."
How sick must they feel really, they had an opportunity & let it slip through their collective fingers, I`d never looked @ it like that before, no wonder they`re sooo bitter, especially because they can see us getting better year on year, it must be killing them.
I will never snap back @ a Spurs postee again, I can see the pain they must be in,
& if they think they`re hurting now, next season is gonna be ridiculous!!!
COYFutureBuildingIrons
Leave a name Pete! ; )
Oh Yeah!!! lol,
EssexIron has smashed the nail squarely on the head for me, Spot on!!!
This is Spurs' best collection of kids for well over a decade, but then Bostock, Parrett, Ranieri and others were signed from elsewhere.
This is probably West Ham's worst Youth team in a decade and yet they easily beat Arsenal's FA Youth Cup side in a Reserve game last month. (The same side who bumrushed Spurs' Youth side a week earlier)!
Also, West Ham have played almost the entire Youth season without their 2 best players Eyjolfsson and Payne available. Not to mention the 2nd half of the season has seen 5 or 6 U15/16's play week in and week out, namely Hall, Sanchez, Werndly, Modelski/Smith, Subuola etc.
It's all well and good getting better results at Youth level, but 1 of our recent Youth teams produced Collison, Tomkins, Stanislas, Sears, Spence, Hines and Stech, but they only came 2nd in the league and went out in the 3rd round of the Youth Cup!
I'd take the 2 potential world class players(Tomkins and Collison) and 5 first teamers(and 2 other potential 1st teamers) over an Academy league win any day!
Robert Hall helped England Under-16s on Monday to win the prestigious international Montaigu Tournament in France for the second year running.
The 15-year-old West Ham United forward - one of the youngest players in the Young Lions squad - played the final ten minutes of the goalless draw before England went on to defeat Germany by 2-1 on penalties. It was his second trophy with the national team, after he played a part in England claiming the Victory Shield competition for the home nations last autumn.
Hall had made a significant impact in the group stage, figuring in all three games. Most notably, he scored the crucial first goal in the decisive 3-0 round-robin win against Russia on Saturday, after the previous successes against United Arab Emirates and Ivory Coast.
He will now return to Little Heath on a high, and will look to make even more of an impact on Tony Carr's Under-18 side in the final four fixtures of the season. Despite his age and that he is more used to figuring at U16 level, Hall has already played seven times for the highest Academy age group and scored four goals.
All you WHU fans are spot on today.
The truth has been told by all
WEST HAM UNITED
A Proper Team.
COYI
just wanted to let you spammers know how the spurs kids got on in the tourneo internazional (cause i know your all dying to know! lol)...we won it...beating barcelona in the semi's, and sporting lisbon in the final...shitty spurs academy!
So Tottenham will be winning the Champions League in three to five years, beating Sporting and Barcelona on the way! Or, more likely, these kids will never get their Spurs as your club permanently chase today with no concept of tomorrow. Next manager shouldn't be called Oneday but Today! Come the summer, out will come the cheque book and your kids will see the door to the first team slammed in their faces - as usual.
hammersfan, a little acknowledgement?...surly even a hammer would agree what our kids acheived yesterday isnt to shabby...
Mate, I have no idea. Were the Tottenham kids at the upper end of the age range whilst the opponents were playing kids just graduated to that age group? I have no idea and nor do you. It isn't about the team winning things at youth level, it is about how the kids are developed, nurtured and progress. Lots of teams win the FA Youth Cup without any of the team going on to represent England. The priority at youth level is the individuals, not the team. This crop of Tottenham youngsters may prove me wrong, but what has happened to the last three generations of Tottenham kids? Yes you have produced Ledley in the last 10-12 years, but apart from him? I'm struggling to think of anybody!
the tournament was an under 20's...spurs had one of the 2 youngest teams there, with 2 of the players under 16...add this tournament victory over some serious opposition to the fact we have some great youngsters out on loan at the moment (redknapp describes adel tarrabt as a genius with a frightening level of skill, he has only seen before afew times in his life...in case your wondering, he is the french kid who came of the bench age 17 to turn the game for us when we beat you 4-3 a couple of seasons ago)....so im very much looking foward to seeing these spurs youngsters breaking through, and we have the right manager to allow that to happen
I know who Tarrabt is and I know you bought him! You are still missing the point somewhat. I am both a West Ham fan and an England fan. I want West Ham to produce England players, not sign French Moroccans / Algerians. Where is your patriotism? I know Tottenham envy Arsenal but it seems like you are trying to morph into them!
how old does a kid have to be when he joins you, to be classed as "yours"...jamie o hara joined us at 16yrs old having been a schoolboy at arsenal, he went through our academy, reserves, loaned out to millwalll, and back to us where he has now made it into the first team, so is he not ours? same for tarrabt, joined us as from france, went into our youth set up, we have now loaned him to qpr, he will return in the summmer where i expect him to force his way into the 1st team...so is he not our youth player also?....if a kid of 16 joins you and you devlop him through academy, reserve, loaned out and back to the 1 st team, he is your youth player surely!
It's a fair question. Is The Foe ours or Charlton's? Is Terry ours or Chelsea's? I would count O'Hara as yours because Arsenal let him go. I don't count The Foe as ours because we bought him / stole him from Charlton! I don't count Terry as ours because he was still a kid when he joined Chelsea. I don't count Tarrabt as yours because you BOUGHT him, and I think he had already made his senior debut anyway hadn't he?
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