West Ham Academy star Ollie Scarles has admitted he and his teammates fell short on the recent tournament in India.

The West Ham U19s have been participating in the Premier League Next generation cup in Navi Mumbai over the past few weeks.

The Hammers finished 3rd in the competition and ended on a high with a 3-0 win against Everton. Scarles grabbed a goal and Kodua got the other two. ‘It’s a nice way to end our time here,’ Scarles told WHUFC.com. ‘I think all of the lads would have liked to have been in the final but it wasn’t meant to be.’

It was a great chance for the youngsters to experience a totally different environment and caused them to have to adapt to their situation. ‘Things like the conditions, playing every three days, it’s all things that we’ve had to adapt and get used to really quickly,’ Scarles admitted.

‘We’ve also played a different style of football than what we have for the majority of the season, which allowed us to have control in the heat. I think we’ve slowly got better at controlling the play, and the performance tonight against Everton really showed how we’ve progressed as the tournament has gone on.’

As well as participating in the Next Gen cup, the team have been immersing themselves in the local culture and getting a taste of how those in another part of the world live. They went to a cricket match, the most popular sport in the country, and visited the slums of Dharavi. Scarles says that ‘it’s been a really humbling experience’ for the whole squad. He continued, stating ‘it’s given all of the lads a different perspective, we’re so lucky to be able to do what we do and have the lifestyles that we have… We’ve all learnt a lot.’

While Scarles was slightly disappointed his side couldn’t win the competition, it’s been a great season for them as the majority of those who went to India were involved in winning the FA youth cup and the league. ‘We’ve had a really strong season and managed to come away with a couple of trophies,’ the midfielder exclaimed. ‘It’s nice for us to finish the season all together with a tournament like this. As I said, the icing on the cake would have been to have won the Next Gen Cup, but it wasn’t to be.’

The competition has drawn the youth side’s season to a close. They can be immensely proud of themselves as not only have they been great on the pitch, they’ve also represented the club extremely well. There’s potential for quite a few of these players to go on and have great careers with some having the talent to, possibly, go right to the top. They’ve all got a long way to go but, if they keep their heads down, their future is bright.

By Charlie Bass