West Ham United starlet Ollie Scarles astonishes youth expert with maturity
Ollie Scarles impressed many people at West Ham United when he made his senior debut in the Europa Conference League in November.
The 16-year-old played as a left wing-back against FCSB of Romania in a 3-0 win to ensure the Hammers ended the group stages with six wins from six matches.
The Irons Under-21 ace came through the game with flying colours with an accomplished display in a position he is not overly familiar with being a natural central midfielder.
After that exploit in Romania, Scarles has not been played since for the Hammers but he is getting regular games for England Under-17s as well as the club’s two youth sides.
Kinetic Academy founder Harry Hudson was mightily impressed by Scarles on his debut and believes he could follow in the footsteps of West Ham captain Declan Rice into the first team.
Speaking exclusively to West Ham Zone reporter Joe Ellis, Hudson said: “He looked really mature when he played, he didn’t look like a young player making immature decisions which he has every right to do.
“There’s no reason why he can’t follow Declan Rice’s path of starting as a youngster and now he’s one of the best holding midfielders in Europe.
“They’ve got a great history of bringing through players West Ham but they’ve got quite an experienced team there at the moment and that can sometimes help young players to be surrounded by experienced ones.
“I was just impressed by his maturity at such a young age, it was very impressive.”
David Moyes has to get the club away from the drop zone before being able to give Scarles and other academy players more chances in the first team.
Rice is expected to be key for both the Irons and England for the foreseeable future having got over his illness in Qatar.