West Ham officially announced that they resigned the promising Obdueko and coincidingly sent him out on loan. Regardless of depth, this is good business.
The 18-year-old native of Ireland will be heading out to finish the rest of the 2021/22 season (break clause in January) with the EFL Championship side Huddersfield Town. More importantly, before leaving, he signed a new deal with the club, making Mipo Odubeko a West Ham man until 2023.
Last season while playing mostly for West Ham’s PL2 side, he scored 14 goals in just 12 matches, earning himself the PL2 Player of the Month award in April of 2021. The promising teenager is about to gain some valuable experience playing for the Championship side, which will in turn help David Moyes’ club for the foreseeable future.
Odubeko is now the fourth Hammer to join an EFL club on loan this season. Academy stars Anang, Holland, and Alves are playing with Stevenage, Oxford United, and Sunderland, respectively. As this news is exciting for the future, it does leave us with some question marks.
Loaning Mipo Odubeko is good business for West Ham.
If you look at West Ham’s depth chart, Mipo Odubeko is essentially the second striker on the list. West Ham is lean in most of their positions, but none worse off than the center forwards. Michail Antonio is on an island all by his lonesome.
Even still, this move is a good one for the Hammers and Odubeko. As mentioned before, this will give him more playtime and time to grow. Huddersfield will be expecting a lot out of him, but there is a severe difference between EPL action and Championship football.
West Ham could have very easily moved him out on loan without resigning him first, but they didn’t. Extending him out means that they have confidence in the teenager and expect big things out of him this season. David Moyes has about 17 hours left in the transfer window to make adjustments, but even still, this loan just makes sense for everyone involved.