Sears top of class after Grant raids academy

AVRAM GRANT has faced nothing but criticism since he took charge of West Ham last summer but he should be applauded for keeping faith with the famous youth system at Upton Park which has finally helped the club move out of the bottom three.

Grant’s position has been on the line for the majority of the campaign with West Ham rooted to the foot of the table and must have been fearing the worst after reports suggested he only had three games to save his job over the Christmas period.

Any manager would have panicked in that situation — but not the reserved Israeli coach who struggles to show any kind of emotion at the best of times and took one of the biggest gambles of his career by pitching young striker Freddie Sears into the thick of the action at a crucial stage of the campaign.

West Ham supporters, the West Ham players and even Sears himself must have been shocked when Grant handed him a recall to the side for the St Stephen’s Day game against Fulham.

Sears burst onto the scene when he scored on his debut against Blackburn back in March 2008 and was already being tipped to follow in the footsteps of West Ham legend Tony Cottee.

But the goals dried up for the talented youngster and following loan spells at Crystal Palace, Coventry and Scunthorpe, he amazingly failed to find the net in his next 72 appearances.

Sears found himself completely out of the picture at Upton Park and must have thought his days were numbered with the east London club.

But all that was to change at Upton Park on Saturday as he finally broke his drought with the decisive second goal to help West Ham move off the bottom and more importantly out of the bottom three for the first time this season and give them a fighting chance of beating the drop.

Grant has also entrusted his faith in rookie defender James Tomkins who has forged a solid partnership with Matthew Upson, while young winger Junior Stanislas has also been recalled to the side and scored a crucial equaliser against Blackburn two weeks ago which has helped West Ham take eight points from their last four games.

Grant is determined to build a young, vibrant team and maintain the strong philosophies which have seen West Ham produce some of the best young talent in England. He said: “We have brought in three young players when we were at the bottom of the league. I don’t think that many teams would do that. We continue to do the right things because we believe in them.

“One of the basic things is players from our academy. We felt that Freddie needed some experience so he played at Scunthorpe. Even though he didn’t score there he was man of the match three or four times and we had a problem in our team so we called him back. I thought this time we could use him, so I’m glad we did.”

After seeing the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe come through the famous academy at West Ham, Sears is now hoping to be the next player to step off the conveyor belt and make a real name for himself in the Premier League.

The 21-year-old forward admits the goal drought did start to play on his mind, but is now hoping that his spells in the Championship have made him a stronger player and he can live up to the expectations that have been placed on his young shoulders.

Sears said: “I want to score goals all the time and it does play on your mind — I would be lying if I said it didn’t. It has been a long wait but it is good to get it off my back, especially for West Ham as I am a West Ham boy and all my mates support the club.

“It gives you more of a buzz going home with everyone being happy — and being happy yourself.”

The West Ham players were certainly buzzing after recording just their fourth league win of the season. With the imminent arrival of Steve Sidwell from Aston Villa and more signings to follow, the future certainly looks a lot more bright for Grant and his young side.

The same cannot be said for a Wolves side who failed to build on their impressive win over Liverpool last week and were dragged back to the bottom of the table following this defeat.

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy must have feared it was not going to be his day after his side wasted several clear-cut chances in front of goal and then saw his defender Ronald Zubar score a bizarre own goal on 51 minutes when the ball bounced in off his knee. Sears completed the victory on 79 minutes with his clinical finish from close-range.

Despite their position in the table, McCarthy is refusing to panic and says the relegation dogfight will not turn him into a psychopath — even though their next game is against the champions Chelsea.

McCarthy said: “We’ve been there a long time. It’s not affected my psychological behaviour. I haven’t suddenly become a psychopath or something.

“The only way for the foreseeable future is up. That’s the way I see it. We have to keep scrapping and make sure we stay in the fight. There are a lot of teams who are sweating and in a bizarre sort of way it’s the teams in 17th, 16th and 15th who are sweating and not wanting to drop in the bottom three.”