Callum Marshall has returned to West Ham United but with some strange technicalities.

As ExWHUEmployee exclusively revealed would be the case on The West Ham Way patreon, West Ham have now confirmed that Callum Marshall has returned to East London from his West Bromwich Albion.

Unfortunately, there is no other way to look at the loan other than a complete failure. The promising youngster played just 55 minutes out of a possible 1170, that’s 0.05% of the available minutes. The 55 came from 3 substitute appearances. Clearly the Baggies never had any intention of using the Northern Irish international, which should have been obvious considering they’ve already got a number of quality forwards.

Strangely though, despite being recalled, he is still technically on loan there. This means that they can choose to bring him back to the Midlands if they wish, and that he is unable to play in the West Ham first team. However, he is still able to play for the U21s and did so last night in their 3-2 loss to PSV.

While he is an extremely exciting prospect, it seems playing for a top Championship side is just that bit too much to ask for at the moment and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. The striker is just 19-years-old and has plenty of time to develop. It might have been a failed move, but there is still little doubt about what he can go on to achieve. He remains the Premier League 2’s top scorer despite going on loan, hopefully he will be able to retain the top spot come the end of the season.