Young midfielder Marcus Browne has sent out a cryptic tweet this evening, possibly hinting at his displeasure at not featuring in the West Ham first-team lately.
The 18-year-old, who was given his West Ham debut by Slaven Bilic off the bench in the Europa League play-off first-leg against Astra Giurgiu last month, has been on the fringes of the first-team squad lately.
NOTE: The tweet has since been deleted, but can be seen in the screenshot below.
Browne tweeted: “The youth need feeding.. we hungry out here” after West Ham clinched a 1-0 win against Accrington Stanley in the EFL Cup courtesy of a last-gasp Dimitri Payet free kick, which could be interpreted that West Ham’s youngsters need to be given more first-team opportunities.
Twitter: RT @Joshuaonomah10: A night I will always remember
https://t.co/8u3KW424y2 (@MarcusBrowne14)
Afterwards, he retweeted a post from Josh Onomah, who scored his first career goal for Tottenham tonight as they beat Gillingham 5-0. Perhaps, reading between the lines, this is suggesting that other sides are giving their talented young players and West Ham should be following suit.
Slaven Bilic fielded a strong side tonight against the League 2 opposition, including handing debuts to summer signings Alvaro Arbeloa and Edimilson Fernandes, with the latter at age 20 the youngest player to feature on the night.
In a game where blooding in some youngsters would’ve been great for their development, it was a game the Hammers and Bilic simply could not afford to lose after four straight defeats in all competitions.
The likes of Sofiane Feghouli, Simone Zaza and Angelo Ogbonna all started the game but needed the likes of Payet, Manuel Lanzini and Michail Antonio to come off the bench to be difference-makers.
Twitter: Oxford seems a bit pissed off
https://t.co/ybRLMjdKrs (@WHUFC_News)
One of the players who many thought would play tonight, Reece Oxford, quote-tweeted Browne’s earlier comments, suggesting that he is equally displeased at the situation.
The talented 17-year-old defender was on the bench and has been used by Bilic a lot since he took charge in the summer of 2015 but even he would like to make more appearances.
Since taking charge of the club, Slaven Bilic has given first-team debuts to 10 academy products, including the likes of Oxford, Browne, Djair Parfitt-Williams, Lewis Page, Amos Nasha and Alex Pike, while signings Martin Samuelsen, Domingos Quina and Ashley Fletcher have all been given places in the first-team squad.
If the Hammers were still in the Europa League and/or doing well in the Premier League, I would’ve expected a younger side to have played against Accrington Stanley tonight, but given the circumstances, West Ham couldn’t afford to have lost this game so Bilic couldn’t take any risks.
I’m sure he’s got big plans for Browne, Oxford and the rest of our talented young stars.
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