West Ham United have confirmed on their club official website that Martin Samuelsen will extend his loan this summer with FK Haugesund and will remain with them until the end of the year.
And, with the confirmation of that move, it only appears to confirm something that we have all known for awhile – the 22-year-old has no chance of making it with us.
To put things into context, the once highly-tipped winger (Daily Mail) has managed to play just 31 minutes of senior football for us since arriving at the club four years ago and those two appearances were in the Europa League qualifying matches we had back in the 2015/16 campaign (Transfermarkt).
He has had loan spells in England before, spending time at Peterborough United, Blackburn Rovers and Burton Albion, however, they hardly helped his cause for a chance in the first-team regardless of which manager was in charge.
Samuelsen may have been excited when Manuel Pellegrini was named in charge of the club as the pair were together at Manchester City – admittedly the teenager was in the academy ranks at the time, so their paths may not have actually crossed at the time.
The Chilean has a reputation for giving youngsters the chance to perform on the big stage should he feel they are good enough – just look at Grady Diangana and Ben Johnson. However, Samuelsen still has not had that chance and it really does not look like as though it will ever come.
Pellegrini would have had the perfect opportunity to give him a chance this summer in pre-season to see what the 22-year-old can bring to the table, however, he has decided to let him spend the rest of the year on loan with Haugesund instead.
With the continued arrival of quality attacking players in his position as well, Samuelsen’s days as a West Ham United player are well and truly numbered and perhaps January will see him offloaded permanently.