West Ham’s latest graduate is fighting for a first team place after impressing in his past two games. Despite a howler against Sunderland, he played well and is tipped for a great future at the club.
Left back Dan Potts stands at just 5ft 8in but nothing has stopped him impressing, even Leukaemia which he unfortunately suffered from the age of 12, however, before his sixteenth birthday, the youngster was given the all clear, and now the 18 year old is pushing on for a successful career in football.
The youngester who signed a professional contract alongside 12 others in December 2012 – including forwards Rob Hall and Dylan Tombides – had previously won the young Hammer of the year award in the May of the same year. The left back is the son of former West Ham full back, and captain Steve Potts whom made 399 appearances for the club between 1985 – 2002 before moving to Dagenham.
As his father was American born, Dan was allowed to play for the USA U-20s before being declared ineligible to play at any level for the USA. The youngester has sinced represented England twice, once at U-18 and once at U-19s.
Potts is tipped for great things after impressing the Hammer’s faithful when he has appeared, however due to an unfortunate mistake during the Premier League fixture at Sunderland, it has been identified that the youngester needs much more experience under his belt before he can be relied upon as a first team regular. Thus, Sam Allardyce has declared that the club are set to launch an improved bid for Blackburn left back Olsson.
Potts made his reserve team debut for West Ham in April 2011, against Wolverhampton Wanderers. He then went on to make his senior debut in December during a 1-0 win over Barnsley, then, the full back went on to represent the Hammer’s a further three times during their successful promotion campaign from the NPower Championship.
In all nine of his senior appearances, Potts has picked up one yellow card, and no reds.
Hopefully for both Dan Potts and West Ham, he lives up to his potential and becomes a first team regular. Alike his father Steve, Danny has all the potential to become a future captain.
West Ham are famous for their academy, and with the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Glen Johson, who all moved to new clubs, the Hammer’s will be hoping to keep onto their current bunch of youngsters who could all provide success, something the Hammer’s long for.