Rob Hall left West Ham earlier this month to join Bolton Wanderers permanently. Now this week we are faced with the possibility of another future star leaving West Ham, this time Jordan Spence. Most people at West Ham see Jordan Spence as possibly our next big star, to come out of the famous ‘Academy of Football’, however after being frustrated with a lack of first team opportunities, he could well be looking to move on.
We all see Spence as young guy, in his late teens, however he is now 23. By this stage in his career he should be playing first team football, well that’s what you would have thought. This poses the question of whether he is good enough to make it in the top tier of English football. He has now played under three West Ham managers, and in this time has failed to properly cement a place in the first team. Surely there would have been one manager, at least, who saw a glint in this young man’s eye and decided that he was worth a few games. I don’t even remember much of him this season, except the game against Manchester United I think it was, where he played a fairly good game. Shouldn’t we really be expecting more from a lad who is now 23, as he isn’t really much of a youngster anymore. Don’t get me wrong he isn’t an old man, he still has a long career ahead of him, but he just isn’t at that age where he is fresh out of the academy seeking a loan move. If another player came in from a different club at this age, I think that we would be expecting a bit more. However that’s just my opinion.
Evidence that would support my theory that Spence could be on his way out is that Dan Potts, another academy graduate, recently wore Spence’s number of 27 in a pre-season match. When asked why he wore this number later on Twitter, he claimed that it was his new number. Now but I don’t know about you but players like to hold onto their numbers, so this is quite a clear indication Spence could be next through the exit door. Also the ever reliable, @ExWHUEmployee on Twitter, has said that “Jordan Spence is likely to be leaving the club! And has been watched by a number of clubs including Southend.” ExWHUEmployee is normally a reliable source of information, so it seems that Spence could be moving on in the near future. Futhermore if Spence has been watched notably by Southend surely this means that he can’t be as good as we all think he is. If he was that good then he would have been watched by clubs in a higher league.
At the moment this is pure speculation, but it has been backed up by some reliable evidence as stated above. Personally I wouldn’t like to see Spence leave the club, as I feel he is a talent and he has came out of our famous academy. However he can’t be as good I think he is, as it seems the highest team he has been watched by is Southend.