00:00with the new campaign fast approaching there's growing intrigue over which West Ham United
00:08players could step up and shine under Graham Potter this season. Potter the rival had understood
00:16in a fresh tactical approach blending his trademark possession game with the attacking
00:21threat already in the squad. While the summer has brought some new faces the bigger question
00:27is which existing players will flourish in the new system. With European football off the schedule
00:34this year the Hammers have the chance to focus solely on the league and domestic cups giving
00:40Potter more time on the training ground to refine his ideas. That could be the key to unlocking more
00:47consistent performances from key individuals and perhaps even elevating West Ham into the upper
00:53reaches of the table. We spoke to James Jones of London World for more.
00:58Yeah James I mean you know among all the madness the worries the concerns going into the new season
01:06it just seems like a perfect platform for one of the youngsters to step up and have a bit of a
01:11breakthrough season you know we've mentioned a few of them sort of made that impact in the first team
01:15this could be a perfect opportunity for them you know purely no issues financially if they are coming
01:22through that academy we've mentioned before some of the West Ham youngsters have been fantastic and
01:26gone on to have great careers and the connection they have with the fans who's maybe likely to
01:32possibly come and break that sort of barrier into the first team and you can see having a really
01:38positive season if he's given the platform. Well Oli Sculls he made his breakthrough last year
01:45somewhat surprisingly I think anyone expected it to be Sculls that came in and almost kept his place
01:52I think he started eight or nine in a row at one point so he's definitely won the club did confirm in
01:58an interview with Graham Potter on the website this week that Sculls, George Earthy and Keelan Casey
02:05are now fully fledged members of the first team squad which kind of does point to maybe what Graham
02:13Potter's thinking in that you know Keelan Casey is a centre-back maybe he can provide cover alongside
02:17Mavropanos takes the pressure off a little bit of having to go out and desperately buy one
02:22George Earthy had a really good loan spell with Bristol City last year
02:26you know perhaps you know he's impressed Graham Potter enough to be a part of his attack in his midfield
02:32so it's positive in terms of the youngsters there's a lot of youngsters coming through
02:37we've gone out and bought Daniel Cummings from Celtic
02:39we're led to believe he's coming to the he's going to go straight into the development squad
02:44but he comes with a lot of a lot of promise and a lot of pedigree and the hope is that maybe he'll
02:51get an opportunity as well up front he's a goal scorer he's scored a lot of goals with Celtics
02:55reserves last year so there are a number of youngsters that are knocking on the door but the fact that the
03:00club have already confirmed those particular three and Earthy Casey and Sculls as fully fledged
03:06first team players suggests that they're going to be involved next year I think we all expected
03:13Sculls to be involved but it's good to see that the other two look like they're going to get their
03:16opportunity as well and we all know that West Ham West Ham fans love a youth player coming through
03:20we've had so many over the years so many have gone on to achieve unbelievable things in the game
03:25so it's it's something that we're very proud of and it's good to see that it looks like Graham Potter
03:31is kind of buying into that tradition at the club and giving young players a chance and we saw that with
03:36Sculls last year and hopefully we'll see a lot more of it in this coming season had none of it none of
03:41those were his players so he had to make do with what he had a team that was well out of confidence
03:45well out of form and had been for a long long time and I think when you consider that I think he
03:52actually did quite a good job you know went to Arsenal and won at the Emirates went to Man United
03:56and won at Old Trafford there were some disappointing results where you probably would have expected us
04:00to win games that we didn't but that's part of the process when a manager comes in mid-season
04:05you know it's not it's not going to look very rarely do managers hit the ground running
04:09and it remained that way so I think we have to kind of almost treat Graham Potter as a clean slate
04:15from the beginning of the season and I still don't he won't be able to have just this summer to build
04:20the squad that he wants it's going to take a few transfer windows probably a couple of summers
04:24but I'm confident that he is the right guy that can get us back to where we we feel like we should
04:30be but it's not going to happen overnight but I can understand the fans concerns and worries
04:37given the current situation around the financials and the players that we're probably expecting to
04:43see leave the club
04:43so
04:49you
04:51you
04:53you
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