Finding Value in Young Championship Players Key to West Ham Identity Change

With economic uncertainty surrounding the upcoming transfer window, this won’t necessarily be a negative as West Ham will be forced to look outside Europe’s Top 5 leagues in order to rebuild the club in Manager David Moyes’ vision.

While a transfer policy based on finding young and upcoming players from England’s second flight may not initially sound like the infamous ‘world-class’ players in a ‘world-class stadium’, it could be the change that is required for West Ham to finally find some consistency and stability.

David Moyes has already made it clear to supporters his desire to build a squad of young and hungry players with resale value, instead of merely trying to plug the gaps with the scatter-gun approach that has plagued West Ham’s transfer business over many of the previous windows.

While it has been over seven years since the Scot departed Everton to try his hand at replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, his track record of buying players from the championship while in Merseyside included some of the biggest contributors to the club’s success during his time there.

Often operating on much smaller budgets than his contemporaries, Moyes was able to bring players like Joleon Lescott, Phil Jagielka, Tim Cahill and John Stones to the Merseyside club from the Championship. In the case of Lescott and Stones, the club made a profit of £63 million when those players were sold on.

While it’s easy to dismiss these successes because they happened so long ago, this past window could provide a glimpse into the potential of this transfer policy. While it is still early days, both Tomas Soucek (albeit from Slavia Prague in the Czech league) and Jarrod Bowen have looked the real deal since their arrivals from lower leagues in January.

Most importantly, both players have endeared themselves to supporters with their effort levels on the pitch, as Soucek covered more ground than any West Ham player in the last six years in the clash against Manchester City and Bowen was relentless in tracking back against Southampton and Arsenal.

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And while it could be easy to dismiss the potential impact of Championship players, Aaron Cresswell and Michail Antonio arrived in East London from the second tier, and both of them have a Hammer of the Year Award to their name. Nearly five years after his arrival Antonio remains one of the most important players in the squad and while Cresswell’s form has dipped due to injuries, he has still made 180 appearances in the Premier League.

As mentioned before, West Ham supporters will

always admire a player that gives his all for the badge, and those coming from the Championship have experienced the frenetic pace, intensity and physicality of the English game and will have a better understanding of the fan’s requirements of them immediately.

For the past several years, it has been disheartening watching West Ham matches and continually seeing a club that was content to be outworked by their opposition. Complementing the current squad with a few players from one of the toughest leagues in the world could go a long way to changing the identity of the club.

With Declan Rice, Issa Diop, Pablo Fornals, Bowen and Soucek already in the first team and Grady Diangana and Josh Cullen returning from loan spell the club already have quality young talent. When you include the promising right-backs Jeremy Ngakia and Ben Johnson emerging from the Academy, West Ham is in a position to be a club spearheaded by a young and hungry group of players that could form the nucleus of the squad for years to come.

Supporters would be able to live with the growing pains if they consistently saw a squad that put in the effort every week and were able to recognize that for the first time in awhile the team actually had a tangible transfer vision.

When recruiting from the championship, Moyes could point to his previous developmental success, while players could be sold on the club and manager’s willingness to put younger players on the pitch. This would continue to be beneficial as talented youngsters would see their peers succeeding and begin to view West Ham as a destination where they could legitimately get Premier League minutes.

If they can successfully stave off relegation, it’s time for West Ham to start building the foundation of a club that will be successful for years to come. The best way to do that is by finding value in the English championship, developing the young and hungry talent and cultivating an environment in which character and graft are placed at a premium.