It was announced on Thursday that West Ham’s young striker, Elliot Lee, would join League Two’s Luton Town on a one month loan deal. But in this article, I will examine whether Lee has a future at West Ham or whether he will just be yet another to join our mass academy exodus in the past few seasons.
Elliot Lee is the son of former Hammer Rob Lee and brother of Olly Lee, who was released from our academy a few years ago. He has been prolific at all age groups of our academy and scored eight goals in just fourteen appearances for the development squad last season. So it may be reasonable to ask why he has only been given two substitute appearances for the first team.
There are two main reasons for that. Firstly, Sam Allardyce seems fairly discriminatory towards the youth players and there is an evident air of reluctance to play them. Secondly, Lee has been unfortunately riddled with various injuries over the past few seasons, severely hampering his development at a crucial stage in his career. He had to cut a loan spell at Southend short earlier this season to return to West Ham for treatment.
But Allardyce might just have valid reservations about his ability. With Andy Carroll out for the remainder of the season and Diafra Sakho flip-flopping in and out of fitness due to his back issues, Lee might have expected to be getting more chance in his first team. However, since the arrival of Nene, the 20 year old academy product has been forced further down the pecking order and has been sent out to Luton for some much needed first team experience.
The fact that he is on loan in such a low league suggests that he is nowhere near the first team picture at West Ham and, now that he is in his twenties, you get the feeling that his loan spell is make or break. If he gets in the goals this month, he may be rewarded with a few first team chances later on in our season. On the contrary, a barren month could pave the way for his West Ham exit. I’m sure all West Ham fans will join me in wishing Elliot the best of luck during his time at Luton and hope he returns a better player.
