Guest post by Aleksandar Babac
NOTE FROM ZAMAN: The author has written a piece on the Academy of Football, and our current crop of youngsters. He is also the creator of the largest West Ham-based Croatian Facebook page.
Last week in a match between Southend United and Millwall, Anton Ferdinand made a crossed Hammers sign to the Millwall fans leaving the referee no choice but to give him a booking. But in all fairness, they were giving him abuse all match. Regardless, the Academy graduate needed to show his true colours of Claret and Blue!
These days, people think that they can call themselves fans by buying a replica kit. But it isn’t just the fans who couldn’t care less about club history. In fact, even most footballers playing in foreign leagues don’t seem to care much about it. By contrast, the Academy offers something else. Not only do the lads learn to play, but also learn what commitment and loyalty actually mean. As it turns out, these values (in addition to playing well) are good indicators of success at West Ham. For instance, Academy graduates Cottee, Ince, Potts, Ferdinand, Cole, and Noble have all been voted Hammer of the Year.
We have been fortunate enough to have extremely talented players go through our Academy. Whether they continued playing for our club or not, there is no doubt that our club has made the single biggest contribution to English football in recent decades. For instance, Rio Ferdinand is regarded as one of the best defenders of his generation, and is one of England’s best centre-backs. Although most of them are nearing the end of their careers with other clubs, they are testament to our club’s strong stance on youth development, starting off young, playing football in the same neighbourhoods as some of the supporters. Some may call them deserters, but it is worth keeping in mind that they gave their all whilst wearing the Claret and Blue jersey.
I think that this is an issue that we haven’t properly addressed. Just why did some of our famous graduates leave? To name a few, Moore, Hurst, and Peters left West Ham, in spite of the huge support they received from the fans. Money is the first thing that comes to mind. Rio was only 22 when we sold him to Leeds United for a then England transfer record of £18M. Last month, Frank Lampard Jr. announced his retirement. After 15 years since his move to Chelsea, the jury is still out on him. There was enormous pressure on him to deliver, being the son of Frank Lampard Snr. and the nephew of Harry Redknapp. But let’s remember that we did troll our very own Academy graduate. At the age of just 19, the lad was mocked after he broke his leg during a match against Aston Villa. Seriously, how can our fans justify that?
Some 18 years ago, our U19’s team demolished Coventry City in the FA Youth Cup final winning 9-0 on aggregate in two remarkable legs. In the second leg played at the Boleyn, there were more than 26,000 spectators. Maestro Joe Cole ran the show with Michael Carrick on the wing. The quality on show was just something else! That said, many of our Academy players decided to leave years later. Have we now got a preference for more expensive enforcements than home-grown youngsters?
Relegation in 2003 cost us dearly. We sold Carrick, Cole, Defoe, Johnson, as well as the the Academy skipper Billy Mehmet. It has taken us 15 years to recover from it. Our current youngsters are doing well, winning the U21 Premier League Cup led by Reece Oxford. But we need to remove our feeder club image. I’m sure that most of you will agree that we should keep our current youngsters. Let’s continue our legacy of producing young starlets!
When West Ham beat West Germany, Peters one and Geoffrey three, and Bobby got his OBE!