West Ham co-owner David Gold has aimed a sly dig at Everton on Twitter amid claims they are developing more players for the first team than his own club.
The Hammers chairman has made a number of claims on the social media platform since the end of the season about the difficulty for youngsters to break into the team when they are competing alongside established internationals.
But West Ham supporters have pointed out that Everton are doing that, with manager Ronald Koeman regularly starting the likes of Tom Davies, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Mason Holgate and Ademola Lookman in 2016-17.
England felt the full benefit of Koeman’s faith as five Toffees were in the Under-20s side that triumphed in the World Cup final on Saturday.
This was not lost on one West Ham fan on Twitter, who asked Gold to explain why Everton were developing players so successfully for their first team while finishing a long way above the Londoners in the league.
The Hammers chairman took a swipe back at the Merseysiders via his personal Twitter account, highlighting that champions Chelsea, who had played no teenagers all season, still finished 32 points ahead of Everton.
https://twitter.com/TonyHammer61/status/874203376808054784
Chelsea played no teenagers all season and won the Premier League, 32 points ahead of Everton. Managers pick their best team. dg https://t.co/NVeDCeTDiC
— David Gold (@davidgold) June 12, 2017
Many Toffees fans will argue that Gold needs to have some perspective in his argument with Everton not expected to finish above Chelsea ahead of the season and they certainly were not tipped to win the league.
However, they did move up four places after finishing in 11th in the 2015-16 campaign while they will also make their return to European football next season.
Supporters will now be hoping that the young team can grow even better together, while West Ham fans, who once watched their own golden generation with Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdniand, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe, will be wondering what the future holds for their once fabled academy system.