West Ham have had a range of great youth players make the grade in East London, but Jordan Brown has revealed to Sky Sports that he found the exit door was his only route forward.
Brown joined the Iron’s academy as a 16-year-old from Arsenal’s youth roster for what has so far been his only transfer fee, and grew with confidence and showed an end product during his three years in the Claret and Blue ranks.
The club have not missed out on his talent since Brown left, as the striker was later released from Hannover’s second side and now plays in the Canadian Premier League for Cavalry FC.
But, the 22-year-old’s words offer an intriguing insight into how West Ham can better manage the production line that offers so much hope, especially with Xande Silva and Ajibola Alese awaiting their first-team breakthroughs.
That is because Brown revealed to Sky that the appeal of moving to Germany arose as a lack of opportunities outside the U23 squad left him with no alternative back in 2016 to progress his career.
“What made me explore it was the opportunity to play,” Brown said. “I would never have thought about it if the situation at West Ham was perfect. I just felt I needed to play more competitive football.
“I had been playing in those U23 games straight out of school in my first year as a scholar.
“I was scoring goals too. So without getting ahead of myself I knew I could play at that level. You want to keep taking steps as a young player but I felt I had already taken that step. The next one had to be to leave or to play in the first team.”
