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Reece Brown on Trial at West Ham
Birmingham City and England u20 midfielder Reece Brown played 90 minutes for the West Ham Development Squad tonight, on trial with the Hammers.
You can read the live report on the game from this link.
I can already see people not being happy with this one – and to tell you the truth, having seen the talent the kid has got in spades it’s not hard to disagree. I’m not sure of how it would work if he did move to the Hammers but the fact that Blues have allowed him to go on trial at West Ham indicates to me he’s not wanted any more.
There’s been rumblings about Brown’s attitude for some time, and it might be that a move away from Blues is what he needs if he’s to make the step up to be a professional. However, as talented as he is on the pitch he’s got to confront his demons off it that have seen him in recent weeks completely overlooked despite injury issues with Charlee Adams travelling with the first team squad as 19th man. He’s only got to look at former West Ham player and Birmingham City loanee Ravel Morrison to see what can happen if a player cannot be a professional in deed as well as name.
If Brown does go – it will be a major disappointment for sure; maybe more so as we won’t get millions for him as we have for Demarai Gray. However, for all the people calling for him to play in the squad just how much can squad management overlook and still give him a place in the team? He might not have taken a leak in Gary Rowett’s fishpond but I suspect the rumblings over his attitude are deeper than a desire act like any other teenager – and as much as we’ve seen his talent it might not be a price worth paying to see it on the pitch.
Tags: Reece Brown
99 Responses to “Reece Brown on Trial at West Ham”
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How much do you think we’d get for him?
Honest answer? Zip.
At least its another 50 quid a week off the wage bill, lol!
What’s left of his contract?
Six months
Management is about handling the rough with the smooth. This lad has tremendous talent and is just at the point when it should be blossoming. Can understand if there are insurmountable problems but if someone else solves them that will be very frustrating.
Thing is about management,you can’t be seen to be undermined by some young kid just because he’s good at what he does.Let him get away with being late and not pulling his weight and they’ll all do it.One of those things…..get rid and try and bring another one through who wants to make something of himself.
If wanteds to go then bye
Well its probably better he comes to WEST HAM as it sounds like he has a big club mentality and will flourish with us, if your at a Sunday league club you’ll end up with a Sunday league minnow attitude, up here in the premier league, (HELLO DOWN THERE) and with an Olympic size stadium to play in I imagine he’ll get his act together
(waits for the abuse…………)
Sunday League club that stopped you getting to Wembley a couple of years back ;)
Yeah right.You only have to look at how you managed a similar situation with the prodigious talent that was Ravel Morrison.Oh,and where did he end up after your PREMIER league outfit mis-managed him?
One half decent season, (thus far), and the eel munchers get all high and mighty. It’s what we expect from loud, mouthy Cockernees tbh. ‘Big club’ pffft, big mouths and big stomachs more like. The Gollivans curse will strike sooner or later. Oh and what was that score in 2011 against the Sunday league minnows, arf arf, long time before your shower sees any silver.
Wet Spam – the joke of Landan.
Quick guys get the net, I’ve only gone and caught one hahahahahahahahahahahahha
I think you caught a few. Not sure why there are still negative comments about the Gold’s / Sullivan. They put our club on a sound financial footing, got us into the PL (twice) and invested wisely. I would sure prefer owner’s like that back at the club than the current mess we are in.
The problem I have with West Ham, is you play in pink and powder blue, like the scum in B6.
East ender prick
My advice is be very careful what you shout your mouth off about. We are in the mess we are in thanks largely to the tossers who own your lot!! Remember that!
I wouldn’t get too excited about the Olympic stadium until the conclusion of the public finance committee investigation. You might find you cant afford to rent your new council house.
I don’t often find pleasure in seeing a club get relegated but when West Ham got relegated at St Andrews a few years ago I enjoyed watching some of your fans & players crying, well funny
GR has done wonders with this squad getting the very best out of them. You don’t gamble that karma by lowering standards so letting Reece go is a wise move. I assume Gary would have given him every chance and made his mind up. Good move, good management.
Dan The comment about him in the match report on 77 minutes is interesting but c’est la vie. Anything can happen at the Blues.
I am a big fan of Reece Brown, the most talented youngster, maybe player, in the squad. Seems that the kid does not see eye to eye with Rowett and to that extent, it will not work out for him at Birmingham. Such a pity
I guess we all suspected he would leave sooner rather than later, but friggin West Ham!
Has this definitely been confirmed, cant find confirmation and the daily mail said it’s Wes Brown’s brother? Wouldn’t surprise me though!
Yup, I’ve checked it out. The Daily Mail have it wrong.
Surprise surprise the mail have printed a story without doing any research!!
I had to check cos there are two Reece Browns in professional football tbh, but it was quickly confirmed.
Very Disappointing You would think the staff at Birmingham could sort him out not just of lowed him come on a attitude don’t all players have some sort of attitude no one is perfect in till we are told what the problem was I will not believe that it was all down to a bad attitude. Also Demons what demons would such a young man real have that wont be sorted in time. Its a waste. If a player like bower can come to Birmingham and change for the better then a young player like Brown can go 10 better than him.
All so His attitude can’t be that bad It don’t stop him getting in to the England u21s dues it. I think he must want out him self that’s what happens when you overlook a player for so long.
I thought a fee wold have to be agreed by a tribunal because of his age and the years he has been as a youth playern
Me to but its maybe so small its not worth talking about lol
Only if we offer him a deal equal to or more than he is on now – and I suspect we won’t.
I am sure Gary Rowett will explain his decision to allow Brown to go and we will no doubt agree
I think it’s a good move for the lad. He was never going to display his talents at St Andrews. I wish him well, but hope that that there London doesn’t distract hime.
I think it was obvious in the first 5 or 6 months who Rowett did and didn’t fancy. It’s best for all those players whose faces didn’t fit to find themselves a new club and not rot away here. The very best of luck to all of them.
The Daily Mail are saying that it was Wes Brown’s younger brother. :-/
The Daily Mail are wrong – read other people’s comments on this article ;)
I noticed those comments after. :)
It is ironic that Reece Brown would be just the sort of target we are looking for. Someone that has had issues at his old club but who we would hope to put straight. If and when he grows up I think he has the potential to go far in the game.
Think that is highly unlikely to happen. GR ain’t got a lot of money to spend so has to wisely. Such a gamble could have massive consequences. GR is also about a squad that gets on & in harmony with each other & having each others backs. You can tell that, he has commented on more than one occasion about not having any prima donnas & ‘superstars’. It works because all players are pretty much equal. Nobody thinks they’re better than anyone else & nobody demands to be in the team. The players you talk about at other clubs could upset the apple cart & that could be a nightmare situation.
Unity is important atko but the fact that GR is giving a trial to Montell Moore tells me that he is willing to take a gamble. I think we had good service in the past from so-called rebels in Bowyer, Pennant and Ravel Morrison. All 3 were big risks that paid off for us.
I just hope we get a sell on clause. If he gets his head right he could be worth millions.
I am more concerned about our standing as a club rather than the continued release of the young players.Redmond,Mutch,Gray,Brown possibly followed by VSO, Adams,Harding etc.continues to portray our club as ‘a very poor relation’. With current takeover talks galore-it would appear we are still there as an easy picking. Will this change? My only consolation is that GR is still here which gives me a bit of hope.
I’m not convinced that our current situation as a standing club makes any difference, Mitchell. Whether we are in our current situation or whether we had as much money as Man City, we could not legislate for any player wanting a release clause in his contract. Unfortunately players have the upper hand these days, largely thanks to their agents of course. Will we have more home grown players playing in our first team or will they at least get more of a chance soon with the emergency loan system being scrapped? Time will tell on that one but players have had the upper hand when it comes to contracts for some time now. They can almost write their own contracts these days.
How do you come to this conclusion. His brief appearances in the first team haven’t shown this possibility. He was just OK. A good player at a lower level but no evidence he’d hack it in the championship never mind the Prem. He would be starting every week if he actually was the player he’s being built up to be attitude or not. We have a great record of bringing young kids on so there must be a reason Brown ain’t hacking it. Maybe he ain’t as good as consensus seems to indicate.
In Rowett we trust. He makes the call for the good of the club. As I’ve hardly seem him play I won’t miss the kid but of course I wish him all the best.
Question was for Dan not Mitchell
I’ve hardly seen anything of him, Joe but could it be that he simply won’t fit in our system? So much is being made of his attitude but if he cannot play our system or doesn’t want to play our system or whatever then he should go. When the wage bill needs to be kept tight why pay someone who isn’t even keeping the bench warm? People keep coming up with these little digs at Gary Rowett for certain decisions he has made. He has been proven right so far, people need to remember that. They also need to remember that he will only take so much before he starts to get restless himself. We all know there is interest in him!
Very good comments.Atko. Let’s look forward to next league game at Forest with a new face to lift us.
Agree Alko. We’ll never know the true reason so have to trust that Gary’s judgement is right. The lad could be a model professional with zero attitude for all we know but just ain’t good enough in the managers opinion. That’s why few make the step up. Anyway he hasn’t gone yet so who knows.
Frankly I would play the lad in the FA cup game and see how he does.I love and respect this competition but its not for us this year-we cant afford the injuries and distraction with such a small squad.Give him and the other better kids a go-who knows they may step up and shine.Would love to see Brown,Adams,VSO,Lowry and the new Noel Blake( apologies Ive forgotten his name) being told to go out and prove they are worth consideration for the latter stages of the league.Its all very well protecting young talent but sometimes you have to take a calculated risk.As regards the comments of the Geezer from London I rather suspect that he will be eating humble pie with his eels and mash over the next few years.Huge new stadiums have to be filled-not sure this is going to happen!
If we can drop a £60k a week player due to bad attitude in training then a young upstart has no chance!
To lose one teenage star in a week is unfortunate. To lose two is careless.
Not if he’s unmanageable.If he’s a disruption then he’s better off gone.I know you like him as a player but why else doesn’t he even make match day squads?
Hillfield Blues……Yes you are right I do like him. There are always 2 sides to every story. I wonder whether his “Bad Attitude”, if he has one, is due to being constantly overlooked for first team opportunities and seeing other players of lesser technical ability playing ahead of him?
Point taken Richard……but surely if there wasn’t an attitude problem he would at least be considered for match day squads if he was that talented?
Hillfield….It is a Catch 22 situation……He doesn’t get picked because he has a bad attitude, and he has a bad attitude because he doesn’t get picked!!!!!
Star?
Womble Joe….YES a star. Any teenage footballer who plays 5 times for England Under 16’s, 5 times for the Under 17’s, 3 times for the Under 18’s and 6 times for the Under 20’s is a star in my eyes.
I kinda understand your logic but when Brown has played for us he’s looked nothing special. How can you be a star when you can’t make the first team? Surely you trust Gary’s judgement. We won’t miss him in the slightest
Womble Joe……Nothing special? He has only played 11 games for the first team, 8 in the league and 3 in cup competitions, most of which were from the subs bench.
His first league start in January 2014 as a seventeen year old he was voted man of the match.
My point is that he hasn’t been given sufficient opportunities to show what he can do at first team level and he feels aggrieved because of it.
I kind of agree with this to be fair.
He’s had 11 games plus the reserve games so Gary will know all about him.
He’s nothing special and apparently has an attitude issue.
We won’t miss him in the slightest
I guess we’ll never find out the truth either way.
We might :)
I think most of our team has looked lacking on many occasions and for a young starlet to flourish he needs the support and supply from ‘Others’, if on the occasions he played for us were games that we did not perform as we know we can, ( I can not remember the games he played) then players up front do not get the opportunities to show what they can do. Do we give him a shot? I don’t know I am not GR. Kro
Unless the problems were that great he needed a run of games under his belt for experience and confidence. See the West Ham development manager is Westley who used to be at the Blues
and yet we are prepared to give a trial to Montell Moore, who has a poor off the field record.
Who knows what the players think of Reece Brown? Maybe the kid is a bad apple? We await Gary Rowett’s comment on it all
They’re not allowed to go spouting off about each other to the press but there is clearly a massive problem,not just a simple clash of personalities.GR doesn’t appear to be one of those types of manager that is hard to live with and seems plausible and intelligent.Its not within his interests as a manager to let talented players go if he can possibly help it.
My buddy here went to the game and was very impressed with him
If Brown goes and assuming loanees have gone back to clubs for the moment, and GR is reluctant to play those that have returned to us, and Earldey,Cotts and Arthur are still injured then if we had to play tomorrow we look a bit thin on the ground.Based on last Saturday’s team the bench would look like Legzdins, ,Spector,Lowry,Davis,Adams, B-M, Shinnie. Then it’s down to Jones and the U21s. Time to do some recruiting me thinks.
Can’t afford to have 2 baddies at a club without starting a riot , gutted to lose brown , mystified why your assessment of Moore was so different DAN to dicks , was it a forceful comparison of Moore to brown knowing that this discussion would arise , I do hope this club is not turning political , I would rather leave it at one in one out , and let Moore prove GR right , the only time I’ll be bovered is if both go , if we sign Moore that is . .the fact is that we need gates to get bigger and crowd favorite’s meen bigger gates ……kro
William – football is a game of opinions. You only have to read the comments on here to see how wildly different people see games. It’s not politics, it’s just football…
Exactly that opinions, always has been always will be. “No one is right no one is wrong” Except for the one who holds it of course. lol
Let’s be honest lads what has Brown given us at first team level?
Chance would be a fine thing. He can’t give us anything at first team level if he isn’t picked.
At the end of the day, if the club and the lad himself feel he would be better off at another club. So be it. No player leaving is the end of the world, as long as they’re replaced (at least) like-for-like.
Report in the Daily Mail that Brighton are willing to pay David Cotterill’s release fee of £1m.
It’s getting worse and worse!
Personally I would be more bothered about losing Cott’s than I am about Dimmi going. Kro
And why wouldn’t`t you be?
That should please some of our moron fans who reckon he’s shit and lazy
Lads there is only one person who`s opinion counts and that is Mr Gary Rowett.
Fair enough, if GR is getting his say on who is going and who is staying, or are his hands tied? Kro
Well that question is a none starter Adam unless you have something to back it up with of course.
Like most of the comments here, it is just supposition, based on facts..haha, Just stoking the fire. kro
zxcv….”.Only one person’s opinion counts and that is Gary Rowett”?
If Cott’s has a release fee of £1m, and a club is willing to pay it, the only opinion that counts is David Cotterills.
Surfing the web there is lots of news on Championship transfers that have happened and are in progress but I can find nothing on Birmingham’s acquisitions only our losses? We need to start making our moves before it is too late again! Kro
Adam I was just looking on the Web myself and was thinking exactly the same thing.We lack a proper footballing Chief Exec to ride shotgun with GR.GR should identify the targets with his scouting staff then the Chief Exec should go out and negotiate.We need someone who is sharp enough to include relegation salary clauses and sets buy out levels at reasonable amounts!!!! Pannu was not up to it and Im really having my doubts about Pavlos.
Alan Hudson, Stan Bowles, Rodney M arsh, George Best,Mark Dennis, and dozens of others have all been described as unmanagable at some point in their careers, none of them did too bad
Hear hear! Stan Bowles used to be in the betting shop until 10 minutes before kick off. :)
So that’s why Cotterill is not n no rush to get back on the first XI: saving himself for his next employer
Do you believe everything you read?
I’m getting concerned about Rowetts man management ability, the very fact that a premiership club have invited Brown for a trial says they see something in the kid Now why cant Rowet get the best out of him?.Players like him need to be managed carefully otherwise you lose them, I remember another bad boy who was allowed to go to West Ham namely Julian Dicks, he turned out to be a fantastic player for them.
As for the view that he should be allowed to go and be replaced by player with less ability but who would toe the line, that’s sad, Talent is at a premium, workhorses are two a penny.
It’s like he wants a clear out before diving in the transfer market , very strange when we have such a small squad , Gray gone, Brown let out on trial , cotterill interesting Brighton with just a £1 million pound buy out clause apparently …. It’s worrying but we will have to judge him come the end of January …might need six players in instead of three just to make the numbers up , interesting to say the least . Kro
If that’s what he’s doing Dave, then he must be bl00dy sure of players coming in… or he’s taking a hell of a risk. The squad is thin enough, without letting more players go.
It’s atleast two down from the weekend so he must have some players lined up , bloody hope so for all our sakes , could be a very interesting starting eleven and bench against Bournemouth , if we’ve still got 18 players left !! Kro
if his attitude isnt right he will be another ravel morrison/ grealish. heard cotterill could be on his way aswell!!!!! like to sign ex wba winger reuben reid i think his name is.
Duffy been doing really well for burton. should be given a chance
Halford now back at Rotherham with GR stating that no further loan extension required. Just get that warm glow that a mini rush of incoming personnel is gathering momentum. Staffs may be getting that in his water as well!
I’m assuming that Rowett is no fool, so yes, my water diviner is twitching at the prospect. ;)
my water is reversing up the opposite way….no rumours, all prices escalated because of the known £3.75m, GR will not risk high amounts…Vaughan & maybe Tesche our only signings
Hope I am wrong
good luck to brown maybe alan thinks he can get more out of brown than GR…tbh bowns lack team prospects at blues will own have heighten his dont care attitude at blues….imo