West Ham Weekly Loan Watch

It’s been an interesting week for our Hammer loanees. West Ham United and Bolton Wanderers clashed in the Carabao Cup yesterday evening, which saw Reece Burke and Josh Cullen take a seat because of the rule that states loanees can’t play against their parent clubs. Bolton Wanderers went into the match winless in the Championship and couldn’t get it done against the Hammers. It’s possible that Burke and Cullen could have helped, but the West Ham squad was a force to be reckoned with.

Alright, enough of that. Let’s get this thing started!

Josh Cullen

Cullen may have sat against his parent club yesterday, but he played a full 90 minutes against Ipswich Town on the weekend and did well despite another loss for the Wanderers. These nifty graphics do a good job of showing the value of Cullen on the field:

While Cullen has been playing his heart out for Bolton, he still of course has earned some doubters.

It’s okay, though — someday soon our man will prove them wrong.

Reece Burke

Burke played the full 90 in yet another Bolton loss. Much like Cullen there have been some differing opinions about how talented the lad truly is.

One thing’s for sure for Reece and Josh: they’ve got massive potential. All the playing time they’re getting at Bolton will turn out for the better in their long-term development. Burke is just 21 — he’s got a lot of time to develop and emerge as a top center-back. Reece Oxford, who is only 18, is in the same boat. It’s standard for football fans to be impatient, but these kids will prove their worth in time.

Reece Oxford

Reece Oxford still hasn’t played for Borussia Mönchengladbach. For a more in-depth piece on that, have a look here.

Since there’s no update on Oxford’s play, we can mention here that he’s been nominated for the 2017 UEFA Golden Boy award! How he’s been nominated after hardly playing for Reading and now while he’s still not featured for Gladbach is beyond us here at Brace the Hammer — but we’re still happy for our man!

Robert Snodgrass

Snodgrass started for Aston Villa and played 83 minutes in a 3-0 victory at Barnsley.

According to our lovely, vocal chairman, though, there’s some HASHTAG DRAMAAAA going on with the Villa directors looking to terminate Snoddy’s loan early?

That’s a fake account. Gotcha! Anyway, Snoddy is doing very well down in the Championship (where he belongs), and we hope the best for him. He’s garnering a lot of praise from Villa and non-Villa fans alike.

Good for Snoddy. We really do very much want our man to succeed! ...Just not too much. Don’t want our chairmen getting any bright ideas that they should terminate his loan and bring him back to the Premier League on the notion that he’d do well for West Ham — because he won’t.