West Ham appear set to sign highly-rated Hamilton Academical fullback Stephen Hendrie on a pre-contract agreement this month, with the player joining the team at the end of the season, but what would the Hammers be getting in the 20-year old Scotland youth international? Informed SPL follower @alanbrucewrites shares his thoughts on the left-back.
Stephen Hendrie burst on to the sense when he was only 16 for Hamilton Academical in the Scottish Premiership. Now 20 years old and 120 appearances under his belt he is on the verge of moving to West Ham United on a pre-contract agreement. Hendrie is out of contract at the end of the season and had stated his interest in looking for a new challenge.
Due to Hendrie’s age a fee of £1 million has been agreed between both clubs with Hendrie set to complete his medical sometime this week, while playing out the remainder of the season with Hamilton, as reported by The Daily Mail’s Simon Jones.
Hendrie had previously been linked with Scottish champions Celtic and West Ham’s London rivals Crystal Palace.
It was feared that the deal may have fallen through due to the fact the Accies vice-chairman, Ronnie MacDonald, felt mistreated during negotiations and even going as far to say “I couldn’t care if I never heard from them [West Ham] again,”
Although David Sullivan has appeared to smooth over tensions between the clubs and the move is back on.
What Hammers fans can expect is a youthful U-21 Scottish international with bags of pace paired with defensive discipline. Hendrie is a left back that likes to push forward and is very comfortable with the ball at his feet due to Hamilton’s insistence of playing out from the back. Composed with both feet, though he does favour his left, he can produce delightful balls into a box when over-lapping and attacking. Confident, due to his 100+ senior games, he displays experience in positioning that you would expect from a much older full back. Demonstrating his skill as a defender when tackling and recovering. This could be due to his early involvement with Hamilton’s first team.
When he is booming forward he can be caught out to far up the pitch, but with the way the game is played today it is rare to find a young left back that doesn’t at times. This could lead to problems in the future when he is first cutting his teeth in the top-flight but nothing that couldn’t be trained out of him. A real thinker of the game, he is quick to pick up on tendencies of attackers and does have the ability to shut down threats and mark them out of the game. As seen during his fantastic performance against league leaders Celtic, he controlled regaining player of the year Kris Commons, and diluted this influence upon the game. Hamilton when on to record a historic 1-0 away win.
I wouldn’t expect for him to be thrown straight into the West Ham team just yet, as he must improve his size before being capable to excel within the rigors and physicality of the Premier League. While he is a little short, in comparison to most defenders, he must, with a capital “M”, improve his goal ratio. Zero goals during his tenure at Hamilton so far will not be good enough for a West Ham United team that this season are pushing for, at the very least, a spot in the Europa League.
With Hendrie being the latest player to come off the highly decorated Hamilton academy production line all signs seem to favour a player that will grow and thrive at a club like West Ham. Other players that have came out of the Hamilton academy and are playing in the Premier League are James McCarthy of Everton and James McArthur of Crystal Palace. Both players have graduated to be full internationals while in the top league of English football and have become key players within their respective squads.
The move for Hendrie seems a shroud piece of business by David Sullivan, in a highly uneventful transfer window thus far. Although the transfer will not be complete until the summer it will allow Hendrie to develop further at Hamilton and prepare for the jump to the big time at the Hammers.
