Ex Player Nathan Holland

Played against us in the cup. Was the only player who looked okay. Rated very highly at WHU
 
Their tweet said he would be joining us next week, after their cup game.

Now I can’t find West Ham U23s have a cup game, so can only presume West Ham don’t want him cup-tied.

Bit unusual for a lad they’re willing to loan out for six months. Or am I missing something?

We’d want him available ASAP, surely..?
 
Playing Gillingham in the FA Cup on Sunday? Must be implying he plays that game for the team.
 
Playing Gillingham in the FA Cup on Sunday? Must be implying he plays that game for the team.

Hence my question.

If he’s in the first team, why loan him out?

If he’s in the first team for one game only, what’s the point of that? If it’s simply to diminish his value to us, that’s very odd indeed.

All I’ve got is so as to NOT cup-tie him vs Hartlepool so if we go out and West Ham stay in, he could be recalled to play for them later. But they could write a clause to prevent that - and also why agree to loan him out for six months?

No biggy but I do find it odd.
 
Not uncommon for Premier League clubs to loan out players after the FA Cup 3rd Round.
 
Beat me to it Dilla. Plenty of precedence on this one. I suspect (cynically) it’s why the Window is when it is.
 
I think he’s the player who phoned KR after the Man City game saying he wanted to come here over a few Championship offers.
 
  • React
Reactions: Ian
fingers crossed on this one was the hammers best player against us in the cup.
 
He was their best player against us probably because he was trying to impress his/our manager. He’s only made two PL appearances so for a 21 year old needing match time a move to a lower league club makes sense. Very quick if I remember, latched onto through balls very well. Strange how his local north west teams didn’t see a future for him though...
 
PL squads have taken a beating in terms of regular games, so there are likely to be wholesale changes for the 3rd round of the cup for top flight sides. At the end of the day, coming through the ranks to play a senior game for the club you grew up at can be a pretty big deal, so it could provide a big psychological boost for the player which could make him more hungry to repeat that feat when he comes here (perform well at Oxford, help them to promotion and who knows?). We've got plenty of league games we could use him in, so so what if he's ineligible for the FA Cup? That'll be like 3 or 4 games tops.
 
As Battman says - the Premier League teams are coming off a run of three games in six days, and being precious as they are, all their regular first team players are likely to need a rest after that. You'll see almost all of them make wholesale changes for this weekend - and Holland coming into the team seems a likely result of that for them.

From West Ham's perspective, they don't care if he's cup tied for Oxford or anyone else. They just want to use him this weekend. If they get through (and let's be honest, with their record against lower division teams, they probably won't), then future rounds won't come on the back of such a period of fixture congestion, so they won't feel the need for quite such wholesale squad rotation for those games.


If there is truth to these rumours, then sounds like another coup for us.

Holland is much closer to the West Ham first team than Marcus Browne ever was. And I'd take him back in an instant!
 
PL squads have taken a beating in terms of regular games, so there are likely to be wholesale changes for the 3rd round of the cup for top flight sides. At the end of the day, coming through the ranks to play a senior game for the club you grew up at can be a pretty big deal, so it could provide a big psychological boost for the player which could make him more hungry to repeat that feat when he comes here (perform well at Oxford, help them to promotion and who knows?). We've got plenty of league games we could use him in, so so what if he's ineligible for the FA Cup? That'll be like 3 or 4 games tops.

He didn’t come through the ranks at West Ham. He joined Everton as a 9 year old and left when he was 18, been at West Ham since.
 
He didn’t come through the ranks at West Ham. He joined Everton as a 9 year old and left when he was 18, been at West Ham since.

You're right, but you can still understand my point. Another taste of first team football for West Ham is beneficial to the player more than playing for us in a cup game against a non-league side we should beat fairly easily.
 
As Battman says - the Premier League teams are coming off a run of three games in six days, and being precious as they are, all their regular first team players are likely to need a rest after that. You'll see almost all of them make wholesale changes for this weekend - and Holland coming into the team seems a likely result of that for them.

From West Ham's perspective, they don't care if he's cup tied for Oxford or anyone else. They just want to use him this weekend. If they get through (and let's be honest, with their record against lower division teams, they probably won't), then future rounds won't come on the back of such a period of fixture congestion, so they won't feel the need for quite such wholesale squad rotation for those games.


If there is truth to these rumours, then sounds like another coup for us.

Holland is much closer to the West Ham first team than Marcus Browne ever was. And I'd take him back in an instant!
Unused sub tonight.
 
Back
Top Bottom