Nuno Espirito Santo has opened up on the thinking behind giving Airidas Golambeckis, Mohamadou Kante, Ezra Mayers and Finlay Herrick the chance to train with West Ham United’s first-team.
Ahead of Saturday’s 3pm kick-off against Scott Parker’s Burnley, Nuno watched a host of West Ham starlets in action on the training pitches at Rush Green.
Days after sporting director Mark Noble raved about Airidas Golambeckis, tipping the Under-21 skipper for a senior debut sooner rather than later, he was spotted being put through his paces alongside Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta and co.
Fellow central defender Ezra Mayers was also present, alongside powerhouse playmaker Mohamadou Kante and rising goalkeeping talent Finlay Herrick.
Nuno Espirito Santo shares message to Airidas Golambeckis and West Ham United starlets
And during his Thursday press conference, Nuno offered a peek behind the curtain regarding his hopes for West Ham United’s next generation.
“Four players of our academy are working every day with us; Finlay, Airidas, Ezra, and Mo,” Nuno said. “This is the best space that all academy players have, to play alongside and to train alongside professional and talented players.
“You don’t have to tell [them] anything. “You just say, ‘look at him [our senior players]. Try to reproduce what you see in him’.
“‘Airidas, look at our centre-halves’ experience. And midfielders, look at [our] midfielders. This is how I look at the academy.
“Can we bring players and develop them? Maybe it’s not for now, but maybe in one year’s time we are talking about having more numbers of academy players in our squad. We have talent there. We just need to give them time and space to grow.”
It remains to be seen if any of the quartet will be in the matchday squad when Burnley come to town.
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
