Beyond the Europa Conference League triumph, last season was doubly-historic for West Ham, who also lifted the FA Youth Cup with a resounding victory over Arsenal in the final.
Bridging the gap between youth football and the senior side remains a major challenge, though, and David Moyes has so far struggled to integrate any of the club’s talented youngsters into his squad in a significant way.
Will 2024 be the year in which that changes?
Divin Mubama
Mubama has flirted with a genuine first-team breakthrough this season, without quite managing it.
The teenage striker has made eight senior appearances, inspiring the comeback victory at Burnley off the bench in November, but only one start, away at Backa Topola in the Europa League.
A decision over his future looms, with the boyhood West Ham fan due to be out of contract at the end of the season and so far rejecting the club’s offers of a new deal.
Callum Marshall
Another member of that FA Youth Cup triumph, Marshall has made the jump from Under-18 to U21 football look straightforward this season with 19 goals in just 13 games across the Premier League 2 and EFL Trophy.
The 19-year-old is yet to make a senior debut but was on the bench in the Carabao Cup win over Lincoln and travelled with the first-team for the quarter-final defeat to Liverpool.
He has, however, already made his international bow for Northern Ireland and is at the head of a core of young players West Ham are ready to let leave on loan in search of senior minutes during the January window.
Ben Johnson
It’s going to be a crucial 12 months for Johnson, but not in the way it might’ve been when he made this list in previous years. In fact, that he still feels relevant to this category a few weeks from his 24th birthday is rather telling.
The full-back’s development has stalled badly over the course of the past season-and-a-half, not helped by a series of injuries, and he is yet to play a minute in the Premier League this term, often failing to make the matchday squad at all.
Read More
The former England youth international has even been turning out for West Ham’s U21 side but needs to move on and find regular first-team football. His contract is up in the summer, but it seems unwise to waste another six months before then.
