"The Development of Young Players Has Never Been More Important"

With the growth of the English Premier League, the development of top-level youth academy prospects is more important than ever. At West Ham United we are very proud of our record of producing players that have progressed into the West Ham first-team and on to a career in professional football.

For the 2008-2009 season we will have as many as 10 academy graduates in the first-team squad. Players such as Anton Ferdinand and Mark Noble have become established as regulars in the first-team and the England Under-21s. They are joined by James Tomkins, Jack Collison and Freddie Sears who made their first-team debuts last season and are looking to become established as regulars. Our pre-season tour to the USA and Canada was notable in that we had ten academy graduates take the field to play against the Columbus Crew and the MLS All-Stars. In addition a number of other players have moved on from the club to enjoy success at other clubs around the English professional football circuit.

We are very proud of our record of developing young players at our club and hope to continue this process for many years. The launch of our USA Academy provides an extension of the academy system in the USA and we hope to add a number of American and Canadian players to our list of Premier League products in years to come. We are confident that all members of our academy will progress and develop within the system into fine young men and hopefully into the next generation of first-team stars.