Julen Lopetegui had a lot of good things to say about West Ham‘s academy in the summer.
During the pre-season tour of Florida, he said “they’re all working very well and hopefully one of them is going to help us during the season” when asked about the 14 academy graduates who joined the first-team on their travels.
He spoke about how he wanted to build a team of young, hungry players. So far, though, West Ham have the oldest squad in the Premier League.
West Ham’s academy is famed for bringing through some of the best players England have ever seen. From the likes of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters to Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole and, most recently, Declan Rice, the club has played a famous role in developing world class talent for generations.
The current crop of Academy graduates are performing well for the U21s, with them currently sitting in sixth in Premier League 2 after winning five of their first eight games of the season.
The likes of Ollie Scarles, Kaelan Casey, Lewis Orford and Sean Moore have all been tipped to make it, while Callum Marshall, George Earthy and Freddie Potts are all making waves while out on loan in the Football League.
But since the start of the season, none have been given an opportunity to show what they can do for the first-team. Given the current form the first-team is in, you do wonder whether the youngsters might be able to inject a bit of hunger and bite into the team.
Indeed, we’re only 11 games into the season, but a pretty damning stat has been revealed by The Athletic that proves our famed Academy of Football is being criminally ignored right now.
That’s because on top of having the oldest squad in the Premier League by average age, Julen Lopetegui has given zero minutes to club-trained players so far this season – making us one of four Premier League clubs to have ignored their academies.
No team has had more minutes played by club-trained players than Manchester United in the Premier League this season… pic.twitter.com/VcRwR6oIOe
— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) November 19, 2024
That means not a single homegrown player has played a single minute for West Ham this season. Manchester United, Liverpool, Brighton, Arsenal and Chelsea have given the most minutes to their young academy graduates.
In recent years, Mark Noble, Ben Johnson, Declan Rice and even Earthy, who scored on his Premier League debut last season, have ensured West Ham still had some academy blood in their team.
But this season it has been non existent, and that’s a very sad state of affairs given the club’s history with academy players.
