West Ham United and Chelsea transfer news as Makise Evans wanted
West Ham United are one of four Premier League clubs who want to sign Stevenage starlet Makise Evans, according to the Daily Mirror.
The record-breaking striker, who is the youngest ever player to feature for the League Two club, has yet to sign a professional deal in his short career and only has one year remaining with the Stags as a scholar.
While out on loan at non-league side Potters Bar earlier this season, Evans became the youngest-ever player to score for the club when netting against Lewes.
“Stevenage’s record-breaking starlet Makes Evans is a Premier League target,” the Daily Mirror wrote (Monday 24 April, page 44).
“Aged 16 years and 248 days, the striker is the youngest-ever player to appear in the club’s first team in its 47-year history.
“He has now the top-flight quartet of Chelsea, Brighton, West Ham and Aston Villa monitoring him closely.”
Top talent
After losing a couple of their brightest young talents over the last year, West Ham United could do with re-igniting their youth ranks with players in the ilk of Evans.
The departures of the academy’s Sonny Perkins to Leeds United last summer and Harrison Ashby to Newcastle in the winter window were bitter blows to the youth ranks.
Such moves put the club’s academy in a bad light and further highlighted a recent trend that has seen far too few young stars rising through the ranks to make the first team.
Evans certainly looks to be a top talent, although in the infancy of his career, but West Ham face stiff competition from top academies Chelsea and Aston Villa.
The Blues’ renowned Cobham set-up and Villa’s Bodymoor Heath are regarded as two of the best across the country, so West Ham will do well to beat them to Evans’ signature.
Either way, it is a promising sign that the club are once again looking to invest in the youth ranks.