West Ham United sporting director Mark Noble has defended the club’s sales during the January transfer window.
In the winter window, six players left West Ham on permanent deals, four of whom were players in the academy, with their sales bringing in more than £3.4million of transfer revenue to the club.
Young right-back Harrison Ashby joined Newcastle United in a £3million exit, with left-back Manny Longelo completing a permanent switch to Birmingham City for £400,000. Midfielder Pierre Ekwah and right-back Will Greenidge also left for Sunderland and Colchester United respectively for undisclosed fees.
READ NEXT: Nikola Vlasic dips, Arthur Masuaku's ban, Conor Coventry’s debut - West Ham loan latest
Those exits have led to concerns from some Hammers supporters, who feel that selling academy players shows a lack of ambition to develop young players of their own.
However, Noble, who became the club’s sporting director last month, has defended those decisions and has actually said by selling the quartet, it will allow the club’s under-18s, who are in scintillating form, to have a clearer pathway to the first-team.
This season, West Ham’s under-18s are 13 points clear at the top of the Under-18s Premier League South after just 13 games, as well as into the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup for the first time in 18 years, with Noble being a player when they last got that far in 2005.
Of the under-18s group, striker Divin Mubama, centre-back Kaelan Casey and left-back Ollie Scarles have all had first-team minutes this season, a sign of how talented the crop of under-18s currently are at the club.
Speaking about the sales in the academy last month, Noble believes the under-18s at West Ham have a lot of potential, and permanent exits for Ashby, Longelo, Ekwah and Greenidge will only boost the chances of the current teenagers at the club succeeding in the future.
“You need a five-year plan and to see who is coming through,” Noble said on Fozcast - The Ben Foster Podcast .
“We actually let a few of the boys go in January, the young boys – well I say young they were like 21/22. Because you need to create a pathway for the 18s (and) the younger 21s because [the under-18s are 13] points clear in their league and they’re in the quarter finals of the FA Youth Cup.
“And we’ve got some real talented players, so they’re our next crop. And I need to see them up close, I need to know them personally and try and get them into our first team.
“The ones we let go were great kids, really good players, but in a way you need to let them go and have a career. Because if they’re not going to play here then (you’re just holding them back).
“For us, to let them go and have a career, there’s all sorts of clauses, we protect ourselves in that. But a player needs to play, needs to go and have games and I don’t want to stop a young player from doing that. So I have sort of taken it personally that the transition from here Chadwell Heath to Rush Green where the first team train, I need to get as many players there as possible.
“And me knowing them personally and training with them as I do, while I’m out there I can give them pointers and talk them through things and it’s priceless for them because I’ve been on that journey, I’ve transitioned from academy to first team. So in my eyes there’s no better person in the world to do that.
“Look sporting director is sometimes labelled as ‘you get players in for the first team’ (and) of course I was at the training ground yesterday looking at players and having my opinion on that but there’s no reason why I can’t do it with the academy as well.”
READ MORE
Chelsea's Graham Potter will forever be grateful to West Ham's David Moyes after classy gesture
N’Golo Kante among six Chelsea players who could be absent for West Ham Premier League clash
Tottenham dealt significant blow ahead of West Ham derby clash in the Premier League
How Mark Noble plans to save West Ham millions amid Enzo Fernandez Chelsea transfer example
'Incredible' - Kieran Trippier makes Thomas Partey and Casemiro claim on West Ham’s Declan Rice
