The Academy of Football is rounding back into its former glory with top-notch youth players pushing through the system. For West Ham, a budding star should be a squad player next season.
He’s torn it up at the youth level, scored with ridiculous ease in the PL2, and succeeded on a brief loan this season. There is nothing Nathan Holland hasn’t completed when asked by West Ham, and 2020/2021 is time to reward him for his loyalty and success.
His numbers this season in the Premier League 2 were staggering. He netted 12 goals and added six assists in just 13 matches. His performances have helped the Hammers PL2 side reach the top spot in the second division, which they maintained after Holland left on loan.
These numbers echo his previous season as well, with ten goal contributions (2 goals, 8 assists) in an injury-marred season that saw him feature in just eleven matches.
Securing a move to Oxford United in January, Holland linked up with former Hammer Marcus Browne and made a solid impact. He scored two goals in his ten-game stint with Oxford, both against Wimbledon in a 5-0 drubbing. The playmaker has excelled at this level, garnering the description of an “eye-catching” talent and dynamic playmaker from his debut to his final game.
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His loan was cut short with a serious hamstring injury, sustained in a win over Shrewsbury. Holland’s play was exciting and thrilling whenever he stepped on the pitch for Oxford, capping his shortened loan with a dramatic late strike to force extra time in an eventual loss to Newcastle in the FA Cup 4th round replay.
The big and only red flag for Holland is his injury history. With this hamstring injury stacked on top of his injury from the year prior, Holland could be an early candidate for the dreaded injury-plagued player title.
At just 21-years-old, though, Holland should have the youthfulness to spring back into form, at least we hope so. He’s succeeded at every level and has remained loyal to West Ham up to this point. If you aren’t rewarding both of those aspects, you’re wasting the player’s time, and Holland doesn’t deserve that.
With wide and attacking midfield depth likely to get purged this offseason, Holland could assume a squad player role under David Moyes with West Ham. He can score, he can create, and his work rate on the pitch is elite. There is no reason that Holland can’t have the early success that Burnley’s Dwight McNeil has had over the past two seasons.
He’d push the big-name players and has the versatility to play across the midfield if needed. Holland has been an exemplary academy player and professional and should get rewarded for his youth career accomplishments. Listen up, Moyes, this kid is something special!