West Ham United’s reputation as one of English football’s great developers of young talent is well-deserved.
Whoever makes the breakthrough next season – the smart money is on Mohamadou Kante and Ezra Mayers – will be following in the footsteps of Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Anton Ferdinand, Glen Johnson, Joe Cole, Declan Rice and more.
Talent, though, is not enough on its own. The Lampards, the Ferdinands, the Coles displayed the mentality which set them apart from their peers from day one.
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West Ham United’s next generation must now prove they have the cojones to thrive in the highly-pressured, unforgiving environment of a 46-game Championship campaign. A campaign in which anything less than automatic promotion would be seen as a failure.
Rui Pedro Silva sends bullish message to West Ham United youngsters
Rui Pedro Silva knows more than most what is required to emerge victorious over a gruelling season.
He worked as the assistant coach when Nuno Espirito Santo guided Wolves to Championship glory in 2016/17, and arrives hoping to repeat the trick at West Ham.
Speaking after the Hammers were held to a 0-0 draw by Rangers at Ibrox, Silva spoke with typical bullishness. Nuno’s long-time confidante is not afraid of playing devil’s advocate.
And, at a time where there is so much positivity surrounding the current crop of young talents, Silva is taking it upon himself to set the standards, raise expectations, and ensure Kante, Mayers, Lewis Orford, Josh Ajala, Keiber Lamadrid and more know that potential must be backed up by personality.
“[The youngsters] need to grow up, they need to feel what it is to play for a big club,” says the former Valencia, Porto and Nottingham Forest coach. “We are developing these kind of players, and sometimes the game is the best moment for them to feel the pressure, to increase their game.
“But the process, the movements, the intention to do that, it’s there. So when they will be fresh, they will be more sharp and that’s important to know.”
Nuno Espirito Santo picked an experienced XI at Rangers
Ajala and Orford scored against Stevenage in a 5-0 midweek win. Both were handed short cameos at Ibrox, however, alongside fellow second-half subs Airidas Golambeckis, Kaelan Casey and Callum Marshall.
Jett Murphy, Preston Fearon, Connor Brooks, Joel Kerr and Junior Robinson dropped out of the squad entirely.
As exciting as some of the up-and-comers may be, the starting XIs picked by Nuno throughout the summer proves that experience still reigns supreme in the manager’s thoughts.
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“I think we increased the test from the last games [against Southend United and Stevenage]. The intensity increased the level of our team,” adds Silva.
We kept another clean sheet, which is good, and it showed the commitment of the team. The process is a growing up method, but we can see better things. Week by week, day by day, we can see the connection of the players getting better.
The process is getting there, but it is not finished. We believe that we’re going to be ready at the beginning of the season.
“We know that there will be moments that we need to enjoy and other moments we need to suffer together. But there is no other way in football because we know that [the Championship] is going to be a tough league and we’re going to need to fight a lot to get the three points in each game.”
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