Written by Jack Sullivan @jsullivanwhu

Hello again, once again I have forgotten to do an article for The West Ham Way a few weeks running so Ex has pulled me up on it and asked if I could do one this week.

My work experience inside the club has continued, it’s going really well and I’m learning a lot about the club’s day to day workings. Everything is a lot more complicated than I first thought and everyone that works for the club really does care about West Ham and the difference in atmosphere when the team wins on the weekend is dramatic. Thank God the last two weeks we have.

The Palace game was a massive win not only for the points but also for the team’s confidence. Palace are a good side and at home they are even better. We worked hard and threw bodies at the ball, it was a really gritty performance which I love to see every so often. The new formation worked really well and Reid looks back to his best again, along with other unsung hero sung heroes. The three points again at the weekend were massive as Sunderland was a must win game. In my opinion we should of got at least one penalty however the last minute goal made the win that little bit sweeter, even though we did make hard work of it.

The last and main point I would like to make is how bright our young talent looks. We have lots of players who are loaned out at a good level such as Burke, Page, Cullen and Samuelsen all four are real players and I have no doubt they will all get their chance in the future. At the club we have five other young talents in Oxford, Quina, Martinez, Fletcher and Fernandes! Fletcher and Fernandes are both around the 20 mark and have been two fantastic signings so far in my opinion. Fletcher looks confident on the ball and lead the line against Man City where he grafted and almost got the rewards, having a ball cleared off the line. He was with Barnsley last year and scored at Wembley and I think he’s got a real change of being a big player for us in years to come. He’s a real nice lad and very focused, so I can’t see why not. Fernandes is just 20 years old and for some people he was their Man of the Match at the weekend. He’s got real skill and again is confident on the ball, he almost reminds me of a Yaya Toure the way he runs with the ball! His touch and skill for his age are amazing.  It’s important to remember he played well out of his natural position on Saturday however he looked very good.  A player that is versatile is a great player to have in the squad. I think we will see him more and more of him as the season goes on.

We have all heard so much about Oxford and I’m sure you all know what he has got in his locker, he’s a fantastic passer who is also a hard tackler and he gets the odd goal too. I think we all believe he will be a starter at West Ham for years and years to come. Quina is someone who you may know little about, he’s a midfielder who is very skilful and he’s only 17 and trains with the first team everyday! He’s going to be a serious prospect for the club in the future, on Friday night for the under 23’s he had his best game so far for us and ran rings around the opposition!

I also really like Martinez.  He has already proved himself in the Spanish Youth Leagues and we pulled off a real coup persuading him to join us.  He is only 19 and has scored goals wherever he has played, including already scoring plenty for the development squad before his injury.   We beat a lot of clubs to his signature and it is easy to see why.   If he continues to score like has been doing when he returns from injury then he will also be knocking on the first team door soon.

So the future is bright for West Ham. It’s good to see the Academy of Football producing real great talents again and the under 18s currently sit top of their league too, which is a real credit to the whole youth set up that we currently have.

Before I go can I encourage you all to vote for the West Ham Way as the best new blog in the FBAs.   All you need to do is click on this link and your vote will be registered. Here is where you should click ctt.ec/4em0d 

I, for one, want to see Baz Cox’s acceptance speech if they win! You can also vote for Ex here in the same awards: ctt.ec/kHeuU

Anyway here is to another West Ham win! COYI