**It’s never easy breaking into the first team as a Premier League academy player.**
The step up from developmental football to the big leagues is drastic, and young players often take time to adjust to the pace, physicality and skill of England’s top flight.
Even some of West Ham’s most successful academy products initially struggled upon promotion to the first team. For example, Declan Rice was hooked at half-time in an opening-day fixture at Anfield in 2018.
After being left out of the squad in subsequent matches, it was thought that perhaps Rice needed a loan move to help his career – the former skipper even admits that he requested one. But it was denied, and he would go on to become a defining figure at the club.
Following Sunday’s 2-0 loss to Aston Villa, similar questions were asked of Freddie Potts.
As far as I can tell, questions have been asked of him since the turn of the year. Since Tomáš Souček’s return to the side, Potts has often found himself on the sidelines and even faced a three-match suspension after he got sent off away at Burton in the cup.
It has been a strange debut season for the 22-year-old. He featured prominently under Graham Potter throughout pre-season in 2025. And yet, when it came to the opening-day fixture at the Stadium of Light, he was nowhere to be seen. In fact, he wasn’t granted his first start until November, six weeks into the tenure of Nuno Espírito Santo.
He was excellent on his full debut, as the Irons beat Newcastle 3-1. He remained in the side and just kept looking better and better. Soon enough, there were potential England World Cup shouts from Hammers fans surrounding him – and I think that’s where things started to go wrong.
Not that such praise went to his head – I don’t even know if he was aware of such exaggerated appreciation. But that’s when fans thought Nuno had uncovered the next ‘Rice’. In a way, he had – but it was the next ‘2018 Rice’.
Potts is a talented player. He can win the ball, he’s surprisingly strong in the air, and he always looks to go forward. But he’s not the finished article. And, like every current West Ham midfielder, he looks stronger alongside Mateus Fernandes – with the Portuguese international shifted out to the left on Sunday, it was always going to be a tricky afternoon for the academy graduate.
In recent weeks, some fans have clamoured for fellow academy midfielder Mohamadou Kanté to be given a chance ahead of Potts. The Frenchman was excellent against Brentford recently, impressing with his strong runs and relentless pressing.
But he hasn’t faced the exposure Potts has. When he begins to rack up the minutes, he’s bound to have at least one or two poor outings – and will then face the same backlash from fans.
I really like Kanté. I really like Potts. I like Soungoutou Magassa. But they are still young players. Perhaps none of them are ready to start regularly, but they are still valuable players. They just need time.
I’ll put it this way: if I could choose between Potts, James Ward-Prowse, Guido Rodríguez and Andy Irving, I’m picking the man who’s still at the club.