Fixed on the wall behind Mark Noble as he sits at West Ham’s Chadwell Heath academy is a board listing the names of all those who have passed through these corridors en route to a first-team League start.
The stellar names are all there - including Michael Carrick and Joe Cole, part of the last Hammers side to lift the FA Youth Cup back in 1999 - but there have been no new additions since Jeremy Ngakia made his bow against Liverpool in January 2020.
The wait, Noble believes, is almost over, with the player to end it almost certain to be on show in Tuesday night’s Youth Cup final against Arsenal.
“I’m hoping two or three of them would be on that board,” says Noble, of a team that has already clinched the Under-18 Premier League South title in runaway fashion by beating the Gunners earlier this month. “They’re a special group and I say to them all the time: ‘It’s over to you’. If you don’t make it, at least put your head on the pillow knowing you did everything.”
Among that crop, several have already featured under David Moyes in Europe this term, including star forward Divin Mubama, who scored in the last-16 thrashing of AEK Larnaca and has eight goals in four Youth Cup games before Tuesday night.
“They’ve got a real mixture of really strong characters,” Noble says. “Someone said to me the other day that they’re really comfortable being uncomfortable. If they have to sit back behind the ball and soak up, then they’ll do it. They don’t care. But when they open up and attack, they’re really dangerous.”
Even before retiring last season and then taking up the post of sporting director in January, Noble had been a regular presence at Chadwell Heath, where his son, Lenny, plays in the academy.
“Because I’d been here so much, I knew exactly what I wanted to do,” he says, having earmarked the academy as one of the key elements of his remit. “I knew the staff that I wanted to put in place, the coaches that I wanted to move up, because I think it’s so important that the culture in the academy is not a revolving door.
“These are kids. They need to know who they’re working with, they need to have a relationship with their coaches.”
The 35-year-old has a plush office at Rush Green but prefers to spend his time on the ground, soaking up the thoughts of staff at every level and joining in training with the various age groups.
“I feel like if you’re stuck in an office, you don’t get out to meet [people], don’t get that feel,” he explains. “Every door is open. Yesterday, I walked in here and trained with the U18s and five of six of the players were taking penalties in the gym against Jamie, who’s their education coach who they do their classes with.
“Or our chef, Adam, down in the kitchen. We were sitting discussing the Southampton FA Youth Cup semi-final with the coaches and Adam was up with us talking about players. He went to watch the semi-final with Man City and Arsenal. This place is special.”
Noble also remains, as he was in his days as club captain, standard-setter-in-chief. Earlier this season, when the U18 side left their changing room in a state, he made clear that it wasn’t on (“It wasn’t quite as nice as that!”) and the place has been spotless since.
Last week, during an ill-advised game of indoor cricket, one player’s wayward delivery smashed the corner of a television screen. Noble told the group they had 24 hours in which to own up - after 10 minutes, the guilty party did (though a screenshot with the search query ‘cheap TVs’ on Amazon and the offer of a £49.99 replacement was, unsurprisingly, deemed insufficient).
Kevin Keen’s youngsters are separated from the first team, who train 10 minutes up the road at Rush Green, but Declan Rice is among the regular visitors and the England star will be at the Emirates on Tuesday offering his support. For the club as a whole, with Moyes’ first team resurgent, there is every chance of a historic end to the year.
“People still remember when Joe Cole won it years and years ago,” Noble says. “I watched the game. Joe’s my friend now but he was my hero at the time because he was breaking through in the first team and I was in the academy.
“It gets remembered forever, that’s what things like that do. It’d be incredible if we go on to win the Conference [League], if the boys win the Youth Cup and obviously the main aim is for the first team to stay in the Premier League. If all works out, we’ll be celebrating.”
