Youth Exodus From Irons-Why? And How To Fix It

Porto expect to conclude a deal for West Ham prospect Benicio Baker-Boaitey this week, the highly-rated 16-year-old winger has confirmed his departure from the Irons after failing to reach agreement over a professional contract. Baker-Boaitey has previously held talks with Champions League finalists Bayern Munich, Paris St Germain and Benfica but arrived in Portugal last week and is expected to sign for the Portuguese champions before linking up with their U19s. He joins Jeremy Ngakia as player who has come through the youth ranks but has decided to leave the club despite being offered the 'standard' terms given to all players who make the transition, Declan Rice went through the same arrangement but accepted the terms offered to him.

It is not just Baker-Boaitey and Ngakia who have 'jumped ship', last season Domingos Quina chose to not accept thoroughly decent terms in order to join Watford, ironically the same club Ngakia 'elected' to choose instead of the Irons. Fans can only come to the conclusion that West Ham are not a club where young players feel valued? Perhaps the players were offered guaranteed playing time and maybe a bit more money, but look at where Watford are now, Quina hardly got any game time at Vicarage road, unless you call 3 starts game time!

The problem lays with a combination of greedy agents, and the club's recent historic record of bringing so few youth players through the ranks whereas before there was a constant conveyor belt of talent being fast tracked. Sam Allardyce virtually closed down the Academy during his tenure as manager, Slaven Billic showed much more interest, but then all his work was undone when he was replaced by Manuel Pellegrini who flattered to deceive when it came to selecting youth from the club's own academy.

Grady Diangana is a classic example of the club rearing an excellent player but then sending him out on loan to the benefit of a club that will be rivals next season, with no money available the only option is to use Academy players, the U-23's don't seem to be doing too badly do they?

In our opinion the club needs to 'firm up' the transition options made available to aspiring first teamers, and heaven forbid, offer similar financial inducements but on a structured reward basis. It's what other clubs do, glancing at the European leagues there are plenty of highly valuable young players who are growing in value due to being played, David Moyes does tend to bang on about how successful he has been when working with young players and that he can recognise and unearth talent.

Well now is the time to do so, the club cannot afford, particularly in the current circumstances, to keep losing gems that have been trained and paid for,only to lose them to the opposition. - Ed