The success of last season’s loan legion was one of the brightest plus points of West Ham United’s 2025/26 campaign.
Callum Marshall and George Earthy both claimed the Young Player of the Year awards at Huddersfield Town and Bristol City respectively.
Gideon Kodua helped Wycombe Wanderers reach the League One play-offs, Patrick Kelly won the title with Doncaster Rovers, and Freddie Potts ‘became a man’ at Portsmouth.
Only time will tell if that success will be repeated in 2025/26. But the early signs look good.
Goalkeeper Mason Terry saved a penalty on his Braintree debut. Michael Forbes scored on his for Kevin Nolan’s Northampton Town. Kaelan Casey has impressed the Swansea faithful already in South Wales, while manager Matt Bloomfield believes it is only a matter of time before the Luton fans fall in love with Kodua.
A former West Ham United youth-team captain, Gideon Kodua certainly set Hatters hearts racing over the weekend.
Gideon Kodua during Borehamwood v West Ham United: Pre-Season Friendly
Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images
Matt Bloomfield delighted with Gideon Kodua’s impact at Luton on loan from West Ham United
Kodua wants to add goals to his game at Luton. He did just that away to Bradford City on Saturday, and in some style too.
While it was only a consolation in the grand scheme of things – Bradford winning 2-1 against a team who were playing Premier League football when the Bantams were stuck in the fourth tier – Kodua leapt like Cristiano Ronaldo at the back stick before bulleting his header into the bottom corner.
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Kodua did not feature in either of Luton’s first two games of 2025/26. But, after impressing on his debut in the Carabao Cup, the versatile 20-year-old retained his place in Bloomfield’s XI for the trip to Yorkshire.
Ahead of Wigan’s visit to Kenilworth Road on Tuesday night, another lively display could cement Kodua’s spot as one of Luton’s first picks.
Bloomfield, meanwhile, is delighted to learn that Luton will have the option to sign Kodua permanently at the end of his latest loan spell, having worked with the West Ham starlet during two previous stints with Wycombe.
“We’ve got an option to buy if we wish to I believe, and that’s a great opportunity for us as a football club if he becomes the player that we believe he can be,” Bloomfield smiles. “Gids is a boy that obviously I believe in, we believe in because we’ve signed him before.
“The club believes in him as well.”
Youth Cup winner could reach ‘his ceiling’ at Kenilworth Road
Yousuf Sajjad, the former Arsenal, Chelsea and Brentford analyst who now works as Luton’s player recruitment manager, had watched Kodua rise through the ranks in East London.
Kodua scored a sublime lob as West Ham battered Arsenal in the Youth Cup final back in 2023.
Flash forward two years, and Bloomfield believes progress is being made in his attempts to establish himself in the men’s game.
“I thought he grabbed his opportunity,” the Luton boss adds, while insisting that the best is still to come.
“He’s not quite at match fitness and match sharpness because he missed the first few weeks of pre-season, and then he wasn’t playing games because the move here was being negotiated.
“But I thought he showed some real attacking intent. We know that Gids is a boy who can take us up the pitch and one of the reasons why we wanted him here. He’s a real resilient, solid character, someone who’s desperate to do well in the game.
“He’s a dribbler, he’s a creator, he’s someone who, if we can get him in the final third, will create for us.
“We feel like we’ve not reached anywhere near his ceiling yet, so he’s another project for us. Someone to develop. We believe in young players, we believe in developing and he’s one that we really are pleased to bring to the football club.”