West Ham agree terms with highly-rated defender – ExWHUEmployee
West Ham United youngster Ryan Battrum has committed his future to the club by signing a two-year contract, according to ExWHUEmployee.
The Irons insider reported via The West Ham Way (13 January) that the highly-rated 18-year-old defender has penned a new deal which will keep him in East London for the next two-and-a-half years.
Battrum has captained the Hammers at Under-18s level and is seen in the academy as a player capable of making the step up to the first team in the coming years, with his signing considered a “huge boost”.
The teenager’s new contract doesn’t kick in until the end of the current season, with Battrum – who is from a large Irons-supporting family – set to continue his development at Rush Green during that period.
Ryan Battrum secures West Ham future at perfect time
For any young player looking to take that big step to being a regular fixture in the first-team squad, seeing your club hire a manager like Graham Potter must be a dream come true.
That’s exactly what the Hammers have done in the last week though, replacing Julen Lopetegui – who barely ever called on the products of the Academy of Football – with a manager who’ll do just that.
Potter has already shown a tendency to give his young Hammers minutes despite taking charge just days ago, with young left-back Oliver Scarles starting his first match against Aston Villa in the FA Cup.
Scarles impressing in the Irons’ 2-1 defeat is surely a sign of things to come for others coming through the Rush Green system, with fellow left-backs Aaron Cresswell and Emerson now 35 and 30 respectively.
With Konstantinos Mavropanos and Max Kilman just 27 themselves, Battrum will have to bide his time, but if Potter is in East London for the long haul, don’t be surprised to see him sooner rather than later.
In other West Ham news, one of the Irons’ Premier League rivals have laid down the terms for a possible transfer to East London.
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