The Academy of Football: West Ham's Reece Burke

Reece Burke is the latest academy product to go under the microscope in our Academy of Football series.

Burke, 18, is a local lad who has been at West Ham since he was nine after he was spotted playing for a local club in nearby Hornchurch. So where can Reece play? Burke is a centre back but can also play on the right if needed and he showed his adaptability to switch positions during the Capital One Cup second round tie against Sheffield United back in August whilst he was still only 17.

Burke entered the first team fold as somewhat as an unknown quantity prompting many Hammers supporters to pose of the question of “who?” as his name was included on the team sheet to face Nottingham Forest back in January 2014 for the earlySunday kick off in the FA Cup third round at the City Ground. Flop Alou Diarra made way for the youngster on the 55th minute with the score at 1-0 to Forest and it’s fair to say that Burke didn’t have the best debut in the world. At all. Four more goals went Forest’s way with no West Ham reply. A 5-0 loss wouldn’t have been the most encouraging sign for anyone, least of all Reece and he went back into playing in the youth teams for the remainder of the 2013/14 season.

Source: whufc.com

The 2014/15 season, however, started on a more brighter note for the Newham born defender with manager Sam Allardyce hinting that Burke and a select few other youth players may be given more game time and a bigger part to play in the upcoming season. Young Burke was handed a start against Malaga CF in the Schalke Cup in August where he completed the full 90 minutes in a 2-0 loss in Gelsenkirchen. It was only a matter of time though before the teenager tasted victory in first team colours – entering the frame in the 76th minute in the Hammers last pre-season game against Sampdoria at Upton Park. And his taste in victory came in rather unexpected circumstances. With penalties looming, fellow academy teammate Elliot Lee, who received the ball from Burke himself, showed calmness and composure on the right hand side of the box to feed a pass through to Reece Burke who had the ever so simple task of slotting the ball home into the empty net. Burke had won the game 3-2 for West Ham and thus allowed them to lift the inaugural Marathonbet Cup. A sign of things to come, perhaps?

Burke was rewarded with a place on the bench against Tottenham Hotspur on the opening game of the season, though he didn’t get any minutes the real reward was to follow. On the 26th of August 2014 Burke, who was still seventeen, started the Capital One Cup grudge match against Sheffield United and played the whole 120 minutes in which he assisted new signing Diafra Sakho for a goal one his first start before watching the team he supports losing 5-4 in the dreaded penalty shootout. Burke receiving many plaudits for his performance that impressed many, including Allardyce himself. Appearances on the bench against QPR and Burnley followed in October and although he didn’t come onto the pitch the general consensus around the club is that some Premier League minutes aren’t too far on the horizon.

Like many youngsters at West Ham United, Burke has represented his country at youth level playing for England at under 18 and under 19 level and he’s somewhat of a good omen for England’s youth squads with five of the six games being won when Reece has been on the pitch and has proved himself to be very disciplined picking up no booking in six appearances.

Finally, Reece has committed his future to the East London outfit signing a deal until the summer of 2017 describing it as a “great achievement” for himself, fending off interest from Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea. The future looks bright for West Ham United and Reece Burke alike.