Nuno Espirito Santo has confirmed that four academy players are training full-time with West Ham’s first team as the Hammers boss looks to youth to turn the club’s fortunes around.
Ezra Mayers, Finlay Herrick, Airidas Golambeckis, and Mohamadou Kante have all been rewarded for their fine form in the Irons’ youth set-up and will now hope to make an impression on the first team.
Mayers, who was in the matchday squad for the east Londoners’ 3-1 win over Newcastle last weekend, is a left-sided centre-back and recently signed a new contract with the club until 2028.
The 18-year-old was awarded the Dylan Tombides Award and Doris Bell Trophy, West Ham's annual awards given to the academy's outstanding scholar in 2024.
Goalkeeper Herrick, 19, was recently recalled from his loan at Boreham Wood after Lukasz Fabianski suffered a minor back injury.
The England youth international played a key role as the Hammers won the FA Youth Cup in 2023.
Under-21s captain Golambeckis also signed a new long-term deal, securing his future at the club until 2029.
The 18-year-old centre-half is a boyhood West Ham fan, and travelled with the first team on their pre-season tours of Austria and the United States.
Kante, meanwhile, was signed from Paris FC last summer and spent the remainder of the 2024-25 season at the French side as they secured promotion to Ligue 1.
The midfielder has earned plaudits since returning to England to play with the under-21 side.
On the four players’ promotions, Nuno said he hoped to be able to call more youngsters into the first team over the next year.
“Four players of our academy are working every day with us: Finlay, Airidas, Ezra, and Mo,” he revealed.
“This is the best space that all academy players have is to play alongside and to train alongside professional and talented players.
“You don't have to tell [them] anything, you just say look at him, try to reproduce what you see in him. Airidas, look at our centre-halves’ experience, and midfielders, look at [our] midfielders, this is how I look at the academy.
“Can we bring players and develop them? Maybe it's not for now, but maybe in one year's time we are talking about having more numbers of academy players in our squad.
“We have talent there; we just need to give them time and space to grow.”
