Forget the days of the ‘big six’ providing the bulk of England’s youth team and future international squads. There’s a new team in town. And the statistics are there to back it up, before you ask. According to the club’s very own web site, whufc.com, West Ham now rank third amongst teams represented in the England under 17’s to under 21’s national youth sides.
Which is a pretty impressive statistic and brilliant affirmation of what the ‘Academy of Football’ from Mark Noble down to the coaches and assistants are doing.
As the website confirms :“West Ham United’s Academy ranked third in terms of players selected with nine, trailing only Manchester City (15) and Chelsea (ten).”
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The full table is reproduced below:
Forget the days of Manchester United and Liverpool providing the players of the future. Their combined provision is ten players, just one more than the Hammers alone.
And don’t forget on top of that number there are an additional five West Ham youth players who have been selected for non – England sides: Callum Marshall (Northern Ireland), Krisztián Hegyi (Hungary- main pic), Josh Landers (Scotland U19s), and Josh Briggs and Patrick Kelly (Northern Ireland U21s.)
Which bodes for an exciting future.
Now that Graham Potter has fixed the much spoken-about ‘pathway’ through to first team football which was so lacking under his predecessors, Ollie Scarles’ story can become the norm rather than the exception about whom we all rave.
Good times ahead as these Claret and Blue youngsters develop into polished first team players.
As West Ham Academy Manager Kenny Brown said:
“Seeing that we’re so well represented is a brilliant accolade for everybody. It shows that players don’t need to move away from this Club to get the recognition they deserve”.
Exactly so.