Few would begrudge West Ham’s youngsters more opportunities next season. [Nuno Espírito Santo](https://www.claretandhugh.info/breaking-west-ham-keep-nuno-as-kretinsky-wins-sullivan-power-battle/) has been like a breath of fresh air compared with his predecessor Graham Potter in that respect.
Several ex-academy youngsters have been given debuts by the Portuguese manager and must now be looking forward to pushing on and developing their own careers as West Ham players rather than facing further season-long loans in the Championship.
**Callum Marshall, George Earthy, Kaelan Casey, Finn Herrick** and **Lewis Orford must** have raised hopes for breaking through to become first team regulars next term. **Preston Fearon**, of course, one of the younger ‘stars of the future’ will be hoping to impress this summer having featured in West Ham’s Florida tour twelve months ago.
Especially as the Irons are apparently giving their young talent big grounds for optimism, according to [insidefutbol.com:](https://insidefutbol.com/2026/05/28/west-ham-were-split-on-keeping-nuno/714817/)
_“West Ham United are telling the club’s academy players they will get more opportunities following relegation, according to ExWHUemployee”_
Following in the footsteps of **Ollie Scarles, Freddie Potts, Mohamadou Kanté** and **Ezra Mayers**, the next generation of academy players are quite possibly going to be the real benefactors of West Ham’s slide into the Championship: Those that aren’t sold for 100% profit to improve the club coffers of course – could yet find their careers get a much needed boost as the main squad exodus gathers pace in the summer.
Of course, youngsters make mistakes so there’ll likely be fair few older hands transplanted in (and hopefully some stalwarts retained) during the summer window in what will be a very different looking West Ham side come August.
Which in itself offers something of a new broom mentality for supporters, jaded after the last two years of disappointment.