Manuel Pellegrini has selected his first squad of the 2019/2020 and it includes the 23 players that will travel to China to compete for West Ham United in the Premier League Asia Trophy.
It all gets underway next Wednesday when the Hammers will do battle with reigning English top-flight champions Manchester City before facing off with one of Wolverhampton Wanderers or Newcastle United in either the final or the third-place play-off.
As far as you read into the squad for the pre-season tournament, there have been some interesting inclusions and some intriguing omissions.
Surprisingly, the likes of Jordan Hugill, Sam Byram and academy players such as Reece Oxford and Xande Silva have all been left out with much of the attention on the fact that Pellegrini is only taking one striker to the tournament.
But besides all that, has Pellegrini dropped a big hint about Josh Cullen’s future by including him in the traveling party to Asia?
Let’s look at the facts – the Chilean could have taken as many younger players as he wanted to the competition, deciding only on the established Declan Rice, Ben Johnson and Grady Diangana.
Surely there’s something special about these stars in the eyes of the veteran gaffer given the fact that he picked them over the likes of Browne and Silva, as well as Dan Kemp, Nathan Holland and Mesaque Dju, for example.
For only the second time since arriving at London Stadium, Pellegrini has included Cullen in a senior squad of any kind having loaned him out to Charlton Athletic without doing so more than once at the start of last season – this offers a clue that he might have changed his mind about the youngster and now wants to give him a second chance in the long term.
Cullen was key for the Addicks in 2018/2019, helping them to promotion from Sky Bet League One with 29 league appearances over the course of the term, one goal, five assists and performances consistent enough to hold down a starting place under Lee Bowyer, including in the play-off final victory over Sunderland – the South American and his staff have undoubtedly been watching.
Of course, with just the year left on his contract, he could always be giving Cullen one last chance to prove something to him before selling him this summer rather than losing him for free in summer 2020.
Either way, the Republic of Ireland senior squad member has to make sure he takes his golden opportunity in the Far East.
