A standout couple of performances in pre-season – like those produced by Lewis Orford, Josh Ajala, Preston Fearon and Airidas Golambeckis when West Ham United thrashed Stevenage on Wednesday night – is always welcome.
After all, what is pre-season for if not to offer an opportunity for those on the fringes of the first-team?
Nuno Espirito Santo’s next gen ran riot at Broadhall Way. Orford, Ajala and Jett Murphy found themselves on the scoresheet, while Airidas Golambeckis, Ryan Battrum and Preston Fearon did their hopes of a senior bow no harm.
A 5-star showing in Stevenage! Who stood out most to you?
Goals for JWP, Taty, Orford, Ajala and newbie Murphy ⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽
Yet, summer friendlies – while a window of opportunity – are never a guarantee of future success.
Manchester United fans used to label Andreas Pereira the ‘pre-season Pirlo’; stand-out performances in unofficial games usually in stark contrast to his Premier League displays. Yaya Sanogo once scored four times in a single match against Benfica. In 20 competitive appearances for the Gunners, he hit the target only once.
And who could forget the summer when Armstrong Okoflex looked destined to breeze his way through the youth ranks, going from unknown to West Ham United breakout star in the blink of an eye?
Armstrong Okoflex was a revelation in 2021 for West Ham United
Back in 2021, no one could be blamed for feeling that the Hammers had a potential superstar on their hands in Armstrong Okoflex.
Having joined from Celtic when his contract expired, the teenager was the talk of the town that summer. On both sides of the border.
An emphatic finish to put the seal on a 6-2 obliteration of Celtic at Parkhead – just weeks after he swapped green and white for claret and blue – caused as much consternation north of Hadrian’s Wall as it created excitement south of it.
Then, Okoflex marked his Premier League 2 debut with a hat-trick in another six-goal thrashing, this time of Arsenal. With David Moyes watching from the stands, inevitably talk soon turned to a potential fast-tracking into the senior squad.
“It’s also about the whole performance. [Moyes and the coaches] also looking at my work ethic, how I am off the ball, whether I’m doing my defensive duties, running behind,” Okoflex said after his debut treble.
“So a hat-trick is good but it’s also the overall play they’ll look at just as much.”
He would score another hat-trick against Crystal Palace in December, in addition to a brace against Manchester United and a quite remarkable solo effort from deep inside his own half in the Premier League Cup.
No fewer than eleven goals would come in his first 15 competitive Premier League 2 matches.
“In the offensive third, I thought he was a real threat,” youth team coach Mark Robson said of Okoflex following a second treble in his first four months of 2021/22.
“If he can add [better decision-making] to his game, and we can get him in areas where he’s one-v-one with people, he’s a massive, massive threat.”
So, what happened?
Why, half a decade later, has the name Armstrong Okoflex slipped from West Ham minds? Why, at the age of 24, is he plying his trade in Bulgaria rather than at the top of the English game?
Okoflex won the Bulgarian league title with Levski Sofia last season
A difficult loan spell at Swansea City – terminated midway through 2022/23 – certainly saw the hype-train stall.
He started only once in the Championship – playing just 292 minutes – with head coach Russell Martin explaining that weaknesses out of possession were undermining his obvious potential with the ball at his feet.
Simply put, Okoflex could not make the transition to the senior game. Not that early on. And not that Martin gave him much of a chance anyway.
Back at West Ham, that flying start to life in the U21s proved unsustainable in the end. After rattling off 11 goals in his first 15 Premier League 2 appearances, Okoflex scored only two in his next 18. Including a grand total of one across eleven matches following that early return from South Wales.
What do YOU think is causing so many academy exits at West Ham? 🤨
Fejokwu leaves for Club Brugge…
West Ham have a tendency to lose their best young talents. See Divin Mubama, Sonny Perkins, Elisha Sowunmi and most recently Emmanuel Fejokwu; all of whom felt their development was better served elsewhere amid concerns over the lack of a first-team pathway.
In the case of Armstrong Okoflex, however, it was West Ham who made the decision to part ways, rather than the player.
“It was a weird feeling when I went back [after the Swansea spell],” Okoflex told The Athletic after joining FC Zurich on a free transfer in 2023. “It almost felt like West Ham didn’t want me to be there and it hurt me a bit.
“I just wanted to replicate what I did in my first season. When I came back, they had other players they were focusing on. I understood it, but it was just a weird experience. It reached a point where I wasn’t even playing for the under-23s.
“I just kept thinking, ‘What’s going on? I’ve just come back from loan and they don’t really want me to be here. Plus, I can’t go out on loan again. It was frustrating’.”
“When I was told I was being released, I saw it coming with the way they were treating me.”
Sorba Thomas called his release by West Ham a ‘smack in the face’. Now at Stoke City, the Welsh wizard was the only player in the Championship last season to record double-figures for both goals and assists. There is even talk that West Ham may look to bring Thomas back to the club he represented at youth level.
Okoflex would describe his own departure, not as ‘smack in the face’, but something which left him with a ‘chip on my shoulder’. Still only 24, the now Bulgaria-based forward is plotting his own return to prominence, while both he and Thomas are reaping the rewards having taken a rather unique route on their post-academy journeys.
Thomas dropped down to non-league before climbing the ladder again.
Okoflex may be out of sight and relatively out of mind 1,500 miles away, but he did rack up nine goals and seven assists as Levski Sofia claimed their first league title in 17 years last season.
“We didn’t do anything big, [the fans] did!,” said an emotional Okoflex after helping to end nearly two decades of waiting at the Georgi Asparuhov Stadium. “They are the reason we won, we do it for them, not for us. Not for money, not for pride, but for them.
“They come every week to watch us. Today, there are 20,000. This is football, the best in Bulgaria!”
Former Celtic and Ireland kid could be back in the big time soon
Earlier this month, Okoflex kept Levski Sofia’s Champions League hopes alive when he inspired a 5-1 play-off victory over Bosnian’s Banja Luka, scoring in both legs. The former Republic of Ireland youth prospect is well on his way to securing icon status, if he is not there already.
Sometimes, as was the case with Declan Rice for instance, a young player’s career is pretty linear. He impresses with the reserves, makes his mark on the seniors, becomes captain and an England international, and then leaves for massive money.
On other occasions – see former Cheshunt FC winger Sorba Thomas and Levski Sofia talisman Armstrong Okoflex – the route to footballing prominence is winding and full of potholes.
Five years after Okoflex announced himself to an extremely impressed West Ham fanbase, his willingness to step out of his comfort zone and rebuild his career far away from English football should be an inspiring tale for countless youngsters hit with the dreaded news of an impending release.
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