Academy & PL2 2025/26
So far we have Gideon Kodua (Luton, with an option to buy) and Michael Forbes (Northampton) out on loan for the season. Kodua has 35 career appearances (none for West Ham) and 3 goals, and this is his third loan after spending two previous spells with Wycombe. Forbes made 12 appearances for Bristol Rovers on loan last year, and also previously went on loan to Colchester United but didn't play, and has one cap for Northern Ireland.
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https://www.whufc.com/player/403
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It seems that Gideon Kodua is having a good time at Luton Town. He's made 16 appearances, scored 3 goals and got two assists. He mostly seems to be playing as a right wing back, as Luton regularly play a 3-4-2-1 system. Luton are doing alright in League One, and currently sit in 9th with a game in hand on their playoff rivals.
Someone else having a good time out on loan is Michael Forbes, down at Northampton Town. He's made 14 appearances at centre back so far - and has captained Northern Ireland U21s three times in Euros qualifying. Northampton are having a slightly less good season in League One, sitting in 13th. They also play with a back three, and Forbes seems to be playing on the right of that three.
Mason Terry is in the National League at Braintree Town. He's a 20 year old goalkeeper, who has been with Concord Rangers and Hornchurch over the past two years. He started as Braintree's number 1 keeper this season, and started 15 games in a row. He has missed the last four matches, though, including the 4-1 defeat away to the mighty Chelmsford City 11 days ago. Not sure if he's injured or been usurped.
Stepping up into the Championship, Kaelan Casey has recently started to make his way into the Swansea City team. He didn't make it off the bench for the first couple of months, but he played 90 minutes against Charlton, and has started all of their EFL Cup matches - including a game against Man City. Swansea have mostly played a back 4 this season, but when he's recently been in the side it's when they have switched to a back 3. Seemingly, he's currently 3rd or 4th choice, so hopefully they stick with a back 3 for the foreseeable so he can get some appearances under his belt.
Finlay Herrick appears to have become #1 keeper at Boreham Wood this season, and has started the last 10 games. Boreham Wood are flying at the moment, up in 2nd place in the National League, so it's great that he's nailed the spot down.
Sadly, there are a couple of loanees that don't seem to be having the impact they would have hoped. Junior Robinson, at 21 year old right back, went up to Scotland to play for Livingstone this season in the Scottish Premiership. He's not yet made an appearance, and seems to just be warming the bench. Livingston are dead last, so not a great endorsement of Robinson's skills. It seems that he can't dislodge Danny Finlayson at right back, and Josh Brenet seems to be ahead of him in the pecking order too. I'd hope the club are considering a change in approach in January.
And lastly, Lewis Orford is down in League One with Stevenage. He's only managed three appearances so far, with only one in the league. The silver lining, though, is that that appearance was in Stevenage's last match against Reading, where Orford came off the bench for a 16 minute cameo, having also come off the bench the match prior against Chesterfield in the cup. Stevenage are playing a pretty rigid 4-2-3-1 system, and seem to have a really settled side. Jordan Houghton and Harvey White have played pretty much every game as the two in the middle, and former West Ham youth product Dan Kemp has is the first choice #10. Stevenage are having a good season - up in 5th - which may be why they aren't giving a young loanee much of a look in.
Turns out, Finlay Herrick (now referred to on the OS as 'Fin Herrick') was recalled from his loan on 29th October.
Welcome back
Junior Robinson was recalled from his loan to Livingstone last Friday having only made one appearance, and was sent of to join National League side Boreham Wood (and immediately got smashed 5-0 against Burton Albion on his debut. His contract with us is up at the end of the season, and, at 21, he's very likely to be leaving in the summer.
This is old news but not mentioned on here - Lewis Orford was recalled in November, having made 3 appearances and scoring 1 goal for Stevenage.
Krisztian Hegyi has been sent back to Hungary on loan to MTK Budapest. Officially, he was regarded as a first team player, but at 23 it seems unlikely he'll ever make it here so hopefully a good move for him. He does still have a contract until 2027, with a year option.
And then over the course of the past week, we've had Callum Marshall go out on loan to Bochum in the German Second Division, and George Earthy head back to Bristol City for a second loan in two seasons.
Gideon Kodua is probably having the most successful season of our loanees - with 9 goals in 27 appearances for Luton making him their top scorer. His contract is up at the end of the season, and he's 21 now. I think he's likely to be off in the summer, but having a season like this suggests he might have a decent EFL career ahead of him
I think what you say is true of other managers but Nuno has actually given young players a chance and a couple of cameos for Kante and Earthy too - not just in the last 5 minutes either.
I’m always keen to see a youth player given a chance, even if all they can ever be for us is an average player who gives depth (because that’s better than buying in average/below average players) but I think it’s quite often the case that the player who shines against other young players isn’t as capable against full adults. He’s obviously doing well but maybe he needs more time to develop. It would be nice to extend his contract and just loan him out again though if that was an option.
Gideon Kodua is now up to 10 goals in 41 appearances for Luton. That means he's only managed 1 in his last 14 appearances, and has definitely gone off the boil a bit, but broadly speaking he's still starting and getting a load of games under his belt. As with last time, it seems highly unlikely he'll be coming back to us in the summer as his contract expires.
Michael Forbes is now on 26 appearances and two goals in League One for Northampton Town. Northampton are not having a good season, and are currently 23rd in the league - 7 points from safety. He tends to be a starter in a back three, but Northampton have played with a back four in 5 of their last 7 matches, and he has seen his game time go a bit stop start. He's another who is out of contract at the end of the season, and given where he's playing and his age (he'll be 22 at the end of April), it seems unlikely that he'll be back either.
Mason Terry is having a decent time of it at Braintree Town. Not only has he made 35 appearances, he's also scored a goal and got an assist in the last couple of months. The goal saw him come up for a corner, win a header and then scramble it in on the line. The assist saw him come up for a corner again, and this time the ball broke to him wide in the box, and he crossed for someone else to finish. He's also getting rave reviews from Braintree fans (according to some of the West Ham news aggregator websites at least), and has picked up the MOTM award 15 times this season according to the BBC. Aside from that, though, Braintree are second bottom in the National League, so - whilst he's having a good season personally - it's not been a great year for Braintree.
Krisztián Hegyi started the first 8 league games after moving on loan to MTK Budapest, but missed the game at the weekend. Transfermarkt doesn't note whether he's injured or not, but he kept a clean sheet for the first time a week prior, so I'd assume he had a knock of some kind. Hegyi is 23 now, so it seems unlikely that he'll ever really trouble our first team, but his contract runs until the end of next season, so he might well be back on the bench for us in the future.
Over in 2.Bundesliga, it's not going brilliantly for Callum Marshall. He's got two goals in 10 appearances, which - after scoring on his debut - is probably not what he would have hoped for. That said, he's been playing all over the shop for Bochum. As far as I'm aware, Bochum were hoping to push for the playoffs after January, but were 10th when Marshall arrived, and are 10th now. Marshall is 21 now, 10 months younger than Pablo, only 4 months younger than Mateus Fernandes, and a month older than El Hadji Malick Diouf. It feels unlikely to me that he'll break out first team next season, but he is under contract until 2027 so we shall see.
George Earthy's return to Bristol City has gone about as well as his season there in 2024/25. Last year, he made 40 appearances, and but 28 were from the bench. Since returning in January, he's made 8 appearances, 6 from the bench.
Junior Robinson is having more joy in the National League than he had up in Scotland - but not by much. He had a brief spell with Livingstone earlier in the season where he made one substitute appearance. He's up to 6 appearances since joining Boreham Wood. He sat on the bench for a further 8 matches, and has missed the last 3 since he got taken off before halftime against Woking - according to the match reports, he hacked someone down, got booked and then got subbed off because the manager was worried about a red card coming down the line. He's another that's out of contract this summer.
Since heading to Leyton Orient, Kaelan Casey has been a bit of a fixture. He's started 8 games and come on for a further 3 appearances. He went off injured against Peterborough on 14th March, played the first half against Wimbledon on the 17th, and was then on the bench for the game against Wycombe on Saturday.
And finally, 20-year old right back Ryan Battrum joined Mason Terry at Braintree on Saturday, and immediately made his debut against Scunthorpe United, playing 90 minutes at right wing back.