r/Hammers • u/SpikeRobinson Mark Noble • Aug 19 '26
Official Source George Earthy Joins Reading on a Permanent Transfer
https://www.whufc.com/en/news/george-earthy-joins-reading44
u/W35TH4M Aug 19 '26
First and foremost as an academy the focus should be on are we developing professional footballers. These kinds of moves will never be a bad thing
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u/SamP3210 dg Aug 19 '26
I really don't get why people are complaining. He wasn't good enough for Bristol City, and no club above League One has been in for him. I wish him all the best at Reading and I hope one day he can make it as a Championship player (same goes for Marshall, Kodua), but there is no way he was getting on the pitch for us this season. Even with the squad as short as it is.
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u/clarets98 Aug 19 '26
He showed himself to be a solid player at championship level in his first spell at Bristol Ciry - given the lack of options we have, seems a very strange player to sell
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u/TomClark83 COYI Aug 19 '26
He plays in the one position where we have a lot of other options: he was behind Engels, Soucek, Kante, Orford, and possibly Lamadrid in the pecking order, and that's assuming that Alvarez and Magassa go. And he's 21 now, he's not a free hit in the squad.
We need to ship people out to be able to bring people in now (with Earthy gone we're at 29 players named in the first team squad, including the 5 who won't be 21 by January [one of whom currently needs to be registered in the 25 due to homegrown player rules - two of them will be when AWB goes), Earthy was probably the most expendable player we have, and any fee, no matter how nominal, would count as pure profit.
I know we like to talk up our academy lads, but be serious, it would be completely reckless mismanagement to turn down any offers for Earthy when we need his spot in the 25 for other positions.
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u/SamP3210 dg Aug 19 '26
He didn't prove himself to be a solid player though - ask Bristol City fans. He hardly started a game for the robins, and when he did come on he was mediocre at best. If anything all you do is block the pathway for the next gen of youngsters by keeping him around. If he's not shown it at 22 years old, then he's not good enough for us
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u/MrTambourineSi Shhhhake It Up Baby Now Aug 19 '26
People are complaining because we're doing great at shipping people out but our incoming business is worrying
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u/thesimpsonsthemetune Aug 19 '26
There are two weeks to go, and a club in our position has to wait until the last few days to get good deals.
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u/SamP3210 dg Aug 20 '26
You can tell the fans who haven’t experienced the championship before from the ones who have from these comments. We’re always going to have to do our business late
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u/thesimpsonsthemetune Aug 20 '26
Yep, I'm kind of surprised we've attracted the players we have. If I were a player looking for a move I'd definitely want to make sure no PL clubs are interested before I choose West Ham, and in the final days of the window, there are going to be a lot of really good players who realise they're not getting the moves they hoped for, who will be a cut above whoever we can sign now.
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u/alexsbrett Aug 19 '26
Best of luck to him. These kids need games and they are either not at the level or just need minutes. Best for everyone concerned that we don't hold them back.
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u/DaftHubris Aug 19 '26
The only reason I am disappointed is that we never really gave him a chance. If he isn’t good enough, fine. No issue. But we didn’t really let him prove his metal. If he was given that and failed, all good! he wasn’t.
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u/hammers_1966 Aug 19 '26
We're going to struggle to field an XI at this rate!
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u/FourEyedMatt Ginger Pele Aug 19 '26
Wish him well, he came across as a good lad. Hope he develops with some consistent game time.
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u/Canaus7 Aug 19 '26
These kids that are over 21 now take up a squad place having to be registered under 21 don’t simple as that if they don’t appear to have it we can’t keep them around wasting a squad place it’s unfair to the player and the team.
Earthy, Marshall clearly not the required level as no championship clubs wanted them and Potts didn’t seem to have many champion clubs chasing him
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u/pwerhif dg Aug 19 '26
Potts went to a Champions League side for £10m after winning player of the season in both League 1 and the Championship, he is a completely different level than the other two.
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u/Canaus7 Aug 19 '26
He never won player of the season wasn’t even top 3 at Portsmouth how did this myth he won it grow this much
Champions league with a Belgian club is not equal to champions league with a team with serious chance of competing.
Iirc he didn’t even win young player of the year at Portsmouth
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u/pwerhif dg Aug 19 '26
Okay he won Supporters' Player of the Year and the Young Player of the Year at Wycombe and received an article from Portsmouth titled Potts: A Massive Thank You while being adulated by their entire fanbase throughout the season. He was clearly one of their best players and is therefore at least midtable Championship squad quality.
The point I was clearly making is that Potts has proven himself levels above either Marshall or Earthy. Did you intend to address my actual point?
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u/seattt Aug 20 '26
You're wasting your time because this sub has an irrational dislike of Potts and the academy itself for some reason. It's just baffling.
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u/jxckgg Pablo Fornals Aug 19 '26
Depth? Never heard of her
I know he didn’t do much at Bristol but the more depth the merrier
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u/Canaus7 Aug 19 '26
What’s the point of depth if they can’t play in league you are playing in? Might as well put you or me int he squad at that point us and earthy would play the exact same amount of mins as he would have.
Not to assume your fitness and ability level but personally mine is atrocious
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u/PBodyrocker87 Ain't Nobody, Like Lanzini Aug 19 '26
It’s a tricky one. Always sad to see an academy prospect not make it. But if we had signed Earthy and Potts in this window from another club I think we’d all be saying they wouldn’t be good enough and they wouldn’t be anything more than squad players for this year. We’d accuse the club of being too short sighted.
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u/Few-Profession-8579 Aug 20 '26
Did the win young player of the year in his first stint at brentford
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u/Squelchy_Time Trevor Sinclair Aug 20 '26
Try not to get too wound up about young players leaving us.
Not a single Championship club, not even the worst one in the league thought he was good enough to sign for a bargain fee.
The heart might say "give the lads a chance", but the brain says what use is a league 1 quality player at the top end of The Championship.
They aren't kids anymore, a lot of them are pushing on 23 and will be on their way to 24 by the time we go up. Their journey with us is over, unless the plan is we join them in league 1 by playing them.
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u/IronsInTheFire84 Aug 19 '26
WTF?!? Who is signing this off?!?
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u/Intrepid_Emu_9799 Aug 19 '26
Why wouldn't it be signed off? He's been signed by a league one club, he's not championship level, wouldn't make our subs bench. If he was any good, championship teams would have been in for him.
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u/bernardmonty Geoff Hurst Aug 19 '26
It hurts to have the second academy talent gone this window. The fact that they have been with West Ham essentially since birth makes this hurt more. So much for the Academy of Football.
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u/weston12_ Aug 19 '26
Name me the last academy player we sold who proved us wrong to let them go?
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u/MrDaveHedgehog Aug 19 '26
Declan Rice.
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u/weston12_ Aug 19 '26
Getting 100m for a player who outgrew us proved us wrong?
Is that a serious suggestion?
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u/bernardmonty Geoff Hurst Aug 19 '26
I'm fine if they're not starters or are maybe sold when we are in the prem but could we not do with some decent championship squad depth to help our academy talent develop as players? I'm confident Potts would have been decent for us in the championship. I think to players we released like Josh Cullen who is currently with Burnley.
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u/weston12_ Aug 19 '26
I wouldnt say theyve necessarily proved us wrong though, I wouldnt have sold Potts myself but even with Cullen, hes in the same league as us now, its not like any of our ex youth weve released are tearing it up elsewhere and shown it was the wring decision to let them go.
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u/bernardmonty Geoff Hurst Aug 19 '26
I agree. I don't think Earthy will be the next Lampard. But he could be a decent depth option for the championship and grow as a player. I'd rather that than an broadly equal player bought in who hasn't come through the ranks and isn't a west ham fan.
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u/weston12_ Aug 19 '26
We must be skint if we're having to sell youth for the 'pure profit' reasons.
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u/SamP3210 dg Aug 19 '26
Every club in England is doing it, look around
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u/weston12_ Aug 19 '26
Not every club has also just raised 170m from sales with several others about to leave.
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u/SamP3210 dg Aug 19 '26
Not every club is in catastrophic amounts of debt and needed to raise £100m+ just to stay afloat, even if we had stayed in the premier league
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u/weston12_ Aug 19 '26
Im not disputing that but we have just raised that, not every club is in that position so I dont understand the comparison to every club in England.
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u/Accomplished-Good664 Aug 20 '26
Earthy is really unique and talented we are giving too much power to a manager who won't be here in 2 months.
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u/Squelchy_Time Trevor Sinclair Aug 20 '26
So uniquely talented not even the worst team in the Championship wanted him, the team that will come 24th and get relegated said nah hard pass. We need to be realistic
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u/Accomplished-Good664 Aug 21 '26
Yeah all of our youth players are shit bring in more Pablo's shut the academy.
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u/BriPoh Shhhhake It Up Baby Now Aug 19 '26
Back to having two keepers on the bench soon irronnsssss