West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has urged the club’s youngsters to challenge for regular first-team opportunities next season.
The Hammers boast a promising group of young players, including Reece Oxford, Ashley Fletcher and Declan Rice, but only a handful made inroads into the first-team setup last term.
Fletcher, 21, was handed the most opportunities of any of his young team-mates, but the striker failed to hit the back of the net from any of his 16 Premier League appearances.
But a number of their most promising youngsters, the likes of Oxford, Toni Martinez and Josh Cullen, were instead offered out loan to gain further experience in a more regular first-team environment.
Versatile 18-year-old defender Oxford, for example, made five appearances for Reading as they were beaten in the Championship play-off final by Huddersfield, but Bilic would have liked to see him play a bigger role.
But with Bilic set to welcome back the club’s next generation during pre-season, the West Ham chief has challenged them to earn important roles in his first-team squad.
He told the clubs’ official website: “For me, they all have a future. It’s up to them. They’ve been training with us and now it’s about time for them to play.
“Josh Cullen had a fantastic season at Bradford. Reece Burke went to Wigan but unfortunately he got injured. Reece Oxford unfortunately didn’t play enough.
“On top of that we have two fantastic talents who are younger than them in Domingos Quina and Declan Rice, who are doing really good.”
Bilic will likely, of course, still remain open to the possibility of his youngsters leaving on loan again this season. But he will have one eye on the club’s poor injury record of late.
The Croat at times saw his resources heavily depleted due to injuries, and was forced to plug the gaps in the West Ham matchday squad for the final day win over Burnley with inexperienced talent.
Rice, Quina, Fletcher, Moses Makasi and Dan Kemp were named among the six substitutes, with Rice and Fletcher earning run-outs late into the second half.