Why West Ham’s famed Academy still has a lot to offer

West Ham are famed for having one of the best and most successful youth academies in football.

They have produced some of the best youth talent in the country with a lot of their youth products going on to achieve glittering careers, winning Premier League titles, Champions Leagues and even playing at World Cups.

You only need to look as far as the likes of Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Glen Johnson, Joe Cole and Michael Carrick to see what sort of quality the Hammers’ academy has produced in recent years and huge credit has to go to Tony Carr for the work he put in over his long career as head of youth for the club.

There has been an issue over the last few seasons with youth getting a chance in the West Ham first team and West Ham fans have felt hard done by at the lack of chances some of the promising youngsters have had. It seems that perhaps some of those players are not getting the same shot as previous players have done in the past and there is a fear that some of the club’s current crop of youngsters might end up elsewhere before they get a chance to shine.

Even the likes of Jermain Defoe got to play at a young age and showed the qualities he possessed, and rewarded his manager with a great goal scoring tally when he was at West Ham. So history shows that the majority of players given the right chance early on will pay dividends in the long run.

Presently, the team have academy graduates James Tomkins and Mark Noble playing regular first team football, which more proof that, when managed correctly, young talent can flourish. Yet under Sam Allardyce, the chances on offer for the younger talents at West Ham seem to be few and far between with the club’s Development Squad being chucked in at the deep end in the FA cup humiliation away to Nottingham Forest last season, playing a formation they were unfamiliar with.

Apart from that, it seems that Allardyce has dragged his feet on the matter. Despite facing an injury crisis and having plenty of willing youngsters to step into the team, he has instead chosen to play senior players out of position and has even played without a striker at times throughout the season.

This summer, however, Hammers fans gave been rewarded with a glimpse of some of the talent the current youth team has to offer, with the likes of Reece Burke, Eliot Lee and Daniel Potts having a lot of game time in pre-season. Lee looks the most promising striker the club have blooded in many years, with a very impressive goal scoring record that saw him net more goals in pre-season than the entire first team combined. Potts and Burke in defence never once looked out of place, both putting in some stellar performances that will no doubt give Allardyce something to think about during his next injury crisis.

So have West Ham still got the best academy in English football? It could be argued that they have and, if Allardyce can utilise them in the right way, we may be see some great prospects flourish at West Ham in the not too distant future.