[West Ham](https://www.claretandhugh.info/bully-boy-mubama-twists-the-knife-for-hammers/)‘s former teen frontman who departed last summer for fresh fields has learned the hard way that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the Premier League fence. Divin Mubama refused a new West Ham contract and left the club it seemed just as success -albeit a David Moyes shaped, sheltered, carefully controlled (or ‘held back’ depending on your view point) success beckoned: Which was not enough for Divin, who left London for the bright lights of Manchester and superstardom.
To the outsider, there was a sense that Moyes had not given Mubama minutes – apart from game time in the friendlies, the young striker sat largely ignored, fretting his season away on the bench- so it is easy to see why he left.
Mubama headed to Manchester City where things didn’t go according to plan – a few cup minutes but no triumphant breakthrough: West Ham appointed Lopetegui who was even worse at promoting youth than his predecessor. Neither West Ham nor Mubama prospered post break up.
Yesterday the news that Mubama had dropped down to the Championship on a season long loan in search of a future was greeted with comments laced in schadenfreude by several reports. Not fair really. Good luck to the young man.
West Ham have now undergone radical change, with the irony being that the work done by Mark Noble and the manager mean there’s such a thing now as Potter’s ‘pathway’: As Ollie Scarles has made it through to the first XI, Mubama would surely have had a chance at leading the line at West Ham had he stayed.
Most important of all, Mubama’s experience serves as a salutary lesson to West Ham’s crop of young talent that “all that glitters is not gold”. The Irons have to treat their young talent better but the likes of Pottts, Earthy, Marshall, Orford _et al_ might not be so fast to leave the club watching Mubama struggle to make an impact.