WHZ Top 3s: West Ham’s most-promising academy aces
Welcome to West Ham Zone’s Top 3s series, where we will take look through Hammers history and decide which people or events rank highest with topics as varied as players, managers and goals…
West Ham have a history of developing some of the best young talent England has ever seen and Hammers fans take a strong interest in the progress of their academy prospects.
Bobby Moore, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and more recently Declan Rice, these are just some of the names that have passed through the ‘academy of football’ through the years and fans will no doubt be wondering who will next come through the ranks.
We’ve taken a look at some of the brightest young prospects who are close to breaking into the Hammers first team and we’ve picked out who we think could be the next young star at the London Stadium.
There are several young players in the academy who are currently showing great potential and any of them could take the next step and join the first team if David Moyes chooses to call on them.
It is so often the way these days that great prospects aren’t eased into the first team, rather they are thrust in during an injury crisis and they end up being able to hold their own.
With this Hammers squad, we could quite easily see that being the case this season.
Here are West Ham Zone’s top three youth prospects to watch out for.
3.) Aji Alese
Alese is 19-years-old and spent last season on loan at League One side Accrington Stanley. He impressed for John Coleman’s side as he was deployed at both centre-back and left-back on a few occasions. He gained a decent amount of experience at the Wham Stadium and will spend the first part of this season with the Under-23s squad. Moyes’ side has plenty of defensive problems this season so don’t be surprised if you see Alese given a chance at some point, maybe in the early rounds of the FA Cup.
2.) Ademipo Odubeko
Former Manchester United youth player Odubeko joined West Ham in October 2019 and continued the goalscoring form he discovered at United. The 18-year-old scored nine goals in his first eight games for the Hammers Under-18s side last season and has continued his form into this season. He has only made one appearance, in a 3-1 win over Southend in the EFL Trophy, but he scored a brace in that game and is starting to look like the real deal. We think if was handed his Hammers debut in a cup game he could easily get himself on the scoresheet against lower league opposition.
1.) Conor Coventry
Conor Coventry has also started this season in solid form. The holding midfielder has four goals in seven competitive appearances and looks to be cut from the same mould as Frank Lampard. He has also managed a few first-team minutes this season which speaks to how highly the West Ham staff rate the 20-year-old. He didn’t manage to do much in his six minutes against Charlton in the EFL Cup but that is harsh to criticise. We would not be surprised to see Coventry make some more first-team appearances this season and we think he is the best young talent West Ham have.
In other West Ham news, David Moyes needs to fix one problem area of his squad if the Hammers want to progress.