Joshua Ajala

Ajala plays as a forward with genuine pace and a useful habit of finishing well with either foot, which makes him harder to predict than a striker who only shoots one way. He has scored important goals from the bench in academy football, including an equaliser when his own side was down to ten men and without a keeper, a sign of a forward who thrives amid chaos. He joined West Ham's academy from a rival club's schoolboy set up, drawn by the clear path to senior football.

The tension is simply how early this all is, because academy goals against academy defenders tell only part of the tale about finishing against senior pros. Plenty of forwards who score freely at youth level struggle to find the same space once bodies get bigger. Whether Ajala gets the path to first team minutes that drew him here will be the test.