Success at youth level is no guarantee of a bright future in senior football. And perhaps nothing epitomises that more than the varied list of players former West Ham United kid Sonny Perkins beat to the Premier League 2 Player of the Month award in April 2022.
After netting three goals alongside one assist, Sonny Perkins was certainly a deserving recipient of that monthly gong.
As West Ham prepare to face injury-hit Tottenham on Sunday, how Graham Potter’s underperforming first-team need a performance like the one Perkins produced in a 3-1 dismantling of Spurs’ youngsters three years ago.
“Winning this award means a lot to me,” Perkins told the official West Ham United website at the time. “It’s a nice way to be recognised for my form and it’s a good way to finish off the season!
“It means a lot to get this award because there’s a lot of good, young players in this league. To be recognised among those names is a great feeling.”
The three goals he netted in April 2022 would account for nearly a quarter of the 11 he notched across that Premier League 2 campaign. And when West Ham refused to meet the demands of Sonny Perkins’ camp, proceeding his move to Leeds on a free a few months later, one wondered if The Hammers’ stubbornness would come back to haunt them.
Now, still only 21, Perkins has plenty of time on his side.
But as the one-time West Ham wonderkid plays third-tier football at Leyton Orient, the relative success he has enjoyed in senior action pales in comparison to some of the others nominated alongside him for that Player of the Month prize.
Former West Ham United kid Sonny Perkins beat Cole Palmer to POTM award
Perkins was not wrong when he said the 2022/23 Premier League was home to ‘a lot of good, young players’.
Because, joining him on that eight-man Player of the Month shortlist, were Mika Biereth, Cole Palmer, Liam Delap, Alejandro Garnacho and a certain Crysencio Summerville.
Former Liverpool youngster Jack Bearne is representing Greenock Morton in Scotland’s second division these days. Liam Brunt, once of Leicester City, was part of the Wrexham team promoted to the Championship in April.
Perkins may yet join him in the Championship, with Leyton Orient securing a play-off spot.
The remaining five, however, have all gone on to enjoy considerably more success after graduating from life in the Under-23s.
Alejandro Garnacho and Liam Delap lost out to now-Leyton Orient forward
Garnacho has been a bright if inconsistent spark during two miserable years for Manchester United. He might have lost out on the April 2022 Player of the Month award but one suspects a man with the Puskas Award on his mantelpiece will care little about that these days.
West Ham were linked with Liam Delap, available for £30 million after Ipswich Town’s relegation. No player in Graham Potter’s squad has more than Delap’s 12 Premier League goals this term.
A tally made all the more impressive by the identity of his current employers.
Despite a dip in form of late, Delap’s one-time Man City teammate Cole Palmer still has 14 goals and eight league appearances while cementing his spot as Chelsea’s twinkle-toed talisman.
Ex-Arsenal prospect Mika Biereth has successfully translated his prolific Austrian Bundesliga form into France’s Ligue 1. For Sturm Graz and Monaco combined, Scandinavia’s other blonde-haired goalscoring machine has hit the target a Haaland-esque 27 times this term.
As for Summerville, while West Ham’s £30 million signing has not featured since January due to injury, the 2024 Championship Player of the Year should bounce back better and stronger as he aims to rediscover the form that had defenders quaking in their boots while at Leeds United.
Only time will tell whether Kamarai Swyer, Oliver Scarles or Ryan Battrum go on to follow in the gilded footsteps of Palmer and co. But, if those eight 2022 nominees are anything to go by, Premier League 2 provides a rather inconsistent measure of a young player’s potential.
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