Ollie Scarles has finally made his Premier League debut for West Ham two years after making his debut in the Europa Conference League. 

Scarles made his West Ham debut alongside plenty of other Academy of Football graduates in November 2022 as the Hammers defeated FCSB 3-0.

Scarles started the match at just 16 years old while Freddie Potts, Keenan Forson, Harrison Ashby, Kamarai Simon-Swyer and Kaelan Casey all came off the bench. Casey also came off the bench on Monday night against Bournemouth.

Scarles said: “Yeah, it’s brilliant. I’ve worked so hard for this moment and am just buzzing to have made my debut. It’s a dream come true.  I appreciate the trust from the manager to throw me on it at such a stage of the game where it could go either way really.  But we dug in, fought hard, got the penalty. It’s a shame we couldn’t get all three points, but it’s a good point away from home.”

One of West Ham fans biggest gripes with Lopetegui was his lack of trust in the youth players. Before Monday night, the Hammers were the only team in the Premier League not to give a single minute to academy products.

It was about time the  manager started to trust in the youth because the majority of the first team players are not cutting it. Scarles impressed in his twenty minutes or so on the pitch looking tidy on the ball and putting a couple of dangerous balls into the box.

Lewis Orford, who is arguably the Hammers’ most exciting young prospect also appeared on the bench. With the trio that were involved on Monday and others like Ezra Myers and Josh Ajala impressing for the U21’s. Lopetegui has a lot of talented players to choose from that could really help turn his reputation around with West Ham fans.