Christmas gifts were in short supply for the West Ham United faithful who made their way up to Manchester on Saturday, though at least they left the Etihad having been given a peek into the next young talent to emerge from their academy; young Ezra Mayers.
A half-hour cameo from a teenage defender was certainly not the festive feast the Hammers fans were dreaming of.
Yet, as Erling Haaland made mincemeat of Max Kilman and Manchester City racked up three goals against the Hammers for a sixth successive Premier League meeting, Ezra Mayers moved a big step towards achieving his ‘target’.
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The 18-year-old from Wanstead is determined to become a first team regular at West Ham United.
A fortnight after making his top-flight bow at Brighton and Hove Albion, that teenage Mayers was chosen to replace the injured Ollie Scarles ahead of the experienced Igor Julio felt like a real show of faith on the part of Nuno Espirito Santo.
West Ham United fans like what they see with Ezra Mayers
Mayers has been training frequently under Nuno at Rush Green of late.
And the head coach clearly had enough confidence to introduce a man with only seven minutes of senior football and throw him in at the deepest of deep ends. Confidence in his ability and his mentality.
Scarles had been given the runaround by Rayan Cherki, after all. Mayers’ test was made a little easier than the electrifying Cherki was replaced himself just three minutes after the teenager’s introduction, but he certainly looked the part up against Brazil speedster Savinho.
Mayers, did we mention, is not even a natural left-back. More a centre-half, by trade.
“[Mayers] seemed pretty cool and collected,” one fan writes on X. “Would be unfair on him to tie him to this squad though. Let him develop more on loan
“It’s hard to judge away to City, but he definitely has good potential with game time and the right people around him,” another says. “Scarles looked very out of his depth today but we know there’s a player in him, 100 per cent.”
“Mayers has been solid since he’s been on. Starts against Fulham [on December 27th], for me.”
“Mayers looks calm. Good sign.”
“Ezra Mayers looking better than Scarles to me.”
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Nuno Espirito Santo ‘worried’ about latest Ollie Scarles injury
Nuno is sweating on the fitness of Scarles after the club’s Young Player of the Year was forced off in the North West.
With El Hadji Malick Diouf away at the African Cup of Nations and with Kyle Walker-Peters on right-back duty – Aaron Wan-Bissaka is also unavailable for the time being – Mayers might just be featuring in the West Ham XI for the very first time when London rivals Fulham make that short trip across the city.
“I’m worried about how he is now. I’m worried about this [injury] now,” Nuno said at full-time. “With the absence of Malick and Aaron, we are going to need Ollie and Kyle to step up and help us.”
Since the beginning of October, Nuno has handed Premier League debuts to Callum Marshall, Mohamadou Kante and Mayers. Airidas Golambeckis, the club’s Under-18 captain, was also on the bench during the 3-2 victory over Burnley.
“I’m very happy that Gaffer trusted me in that situation,” Mayers said following his Brighton outing at The Amex. “We needed to see the game out, so to come on for Malick meant the world to me.
“[My family] didn’t make it today, but I checked the family group chat for the game after and the videos and celebrations. I couldn’t have done it without them. I’m very grateful.
“Ever since I was a little kid, this has been my dream, to finally come on and make my debut today. I’ve been on the bench recently quite a lot, but today, I don’t know why, but I thought this would be the day that I would come on.
“I mean, once you’ve made that debut, you want to go again. You want to get back on the pitch. I think that’s definitely the next target that I’ll be working towards.”
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