West Ham United’s under-18s were absolutely battered by Arsenal on Saturday, but I think there might have been a good reason as to why.
The West Ham under-18s have been in fine form this season, and were sitting joint top of the table with Chelsea before kick-off on Saturday.
The Hammers youth teams have some truly incredible talents amongst the ranks right now, both under-18s and under-23s.
The future is very bright for West Ham, that goes without saying. The likes of Lewis Orford are currently lighting it up with the under-23s, but we have players in the younger age group who are just as exciting.
I just hope that we get better as a club at loaning out our young starlets.
Time and time again we seem to send them off to clubs where they don’t get enough regular football – Callum Marshall being a prime example of this.
The Northern Irishman has already been recalled, so hopefully now the loan moves will start to be looked at more closely.
There are plenty of young players who seem to have it all. The U-18 side has been in sensational form this season. However, they suffered a very big setback over the weekend…
Real reason why West Ham under-18s just got spanked 8-1 by Arsenal
The Gunners youth team absolutely had their way with us on Saturday, beating us 8-1 on our own patch.
It was an embarrassing performance all round really from the Hammers but it has to be said, Arsenal really were very good.
However, there’s no way we should be losing by seven goals, especially to a team lower down than us in the table.
So what really went wrong?
Centre-back Ezra Mayers, goalkeeper Finlay Herrick, striker Jemiah Umolu and right winger Favour Fawunmi were all missing from the starting XI for the Arsenal battering.
All four players have been vital for Kevin Keen’s side this season, having made 73 appearances combined (Transfermarkt).
Mayers played for the under-23s the day before, so that obviously explained his absence. The other players missed out for other reasons though.
To have four vitally important players unavailable would have been a big concern for Keen before the match. I’m not saying that the West Ham under-18s would have beaten Arsenal had they are been on the pitch.
However, the result might not have been so one-sided, had the four names mentioned above been involved.
READ ALSO:
Sacked 3 months ago, 61-yo who’s managed 3 PL clubs could replace Moyes as West Ham boss
Reporter close to Sullivan makes fresh Steidten claim and it means one very simple thing for Moyes
All systems go for Sullivan as big news emerges on manager after ‘West Ham dream job’ comments