Season › 2016-17 › News Everton youngster signs for West Ham Lyndon Lloyd Sunday, 22 January, 2017 36comments | Jump to most recent West Ham have snapped up Everton Academy product Nathan Holland on a 3½-year deal. The 18-year-old signed his first pro contract last year and it was up for renewal this summer but the Hammers, who have been monitoring his progress for 2 years, stepped and have persuaded him to move during the current transfer window. The youngster has played for Everton Academy since the age of nine and signed his first professional contract for Everton in January 2016 but did not make a first-team appearance. Holland, an attacking midfielder was regularly in the scoresheet for Everton U18s and was also an England youth international. Reader Comments (36) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Sam Hoare 1 Posted 22/01/2017 at 11:59:14 Strange one. Not rated by the coaches or fell out with someone perhaps? Alan Humphreys 2 Posted 22/01/2017 at 12:24:45 Alternatively what players he has ahead of him... John Dean 3 Posted 22/01/2017 at 13:07:57 I haven't seen much of him but he was uninvolved and useless in the recent FA Youth Cup game against Tranmere when he was played on the left wing. Jon Withey 4 Posted 22/01/2017 at 13:28:25 Good luck to him. We let Mustafi and Dier go and they made it elsewhere. Tommy Davis 5 Posted 22/01/2017 at 13:38:15 Sam Hoare: He was highly rated by the coaching staff (I wonder who, Unsie?) & an England U19 player! Manchester lad, been with us since he was 9! I would have to think getting a 3½-year contract offer from another Premier League team, would be hard to turn down, especially if EFC offered less, or did we even renegotiate with him, or his agent, I wonder?!? That must mean West Ham paid some type of fee for Holland right, seeing as he was under contract till the summer of 2017, or is it different with Under-23 players?I wish Nathan luck, he's one of many young lads that do this with all teams! I just spotted a photo of him with the West Ham kit on already! Alan Humphreys 6 Posted 22/01/2017 at 13:39:27 Dier was never ours Jon but get your point.Many a good player has not made at the club they started at. Clearly has something or at least is a prospect that another Premier League club has signed him. Dermot Byrne 7 Posted 22/01/2017 at 13:59:57 Not every youngster we sell is going to be brill. He, in opinion of management, was worth selling. Fair enough. No story. Good luck lad. Charlie Lloyd 8 Posted 22/01/2017 at 14:47:48 West Ham's transfer policy seems to be "if we sign enough players then some may pay off". See how many strikers they've signed in the last year. It's difficult to speculate why Holland has left there are a number of reasons that may apply. Some it works for and some it doesn't. Who remembers Sean Doherty being enticed away from the academy to Fulham. Didn't work for him. Jon @ 4. We didn't actually let Dier go he was on loan from Sporting CP. Anthony Flack 9 Posted 22/01/2017 at 16:07:33 Does anyone know how Ledson is getting on. Don't hear much? Bill Griffiths 10 Posted 22/01/2017 at 16:33:44 Anthony, he scored their 4th in a 4-0 win at Rochdale yesterday. Mike Gaynes 11 Posted 22/01/2017 at 16:37:03 Anthony #9, nice timing on your question. Ledson scored his first goal of the season yesterday for Oxford United in a win over Rochdale. Mike Gaynes 12 Posted 22/01/2017 at 16:40:16 Only 13 appearances... I believe he had an injury earlier this season. Charlie Lloyd 13 Posted 22/01/2017 at 17:02:43 Ledson was on the bench early season then an injury gave him his chance. He's played centre mid since. By all accounts he's doing ok. I saw one match v Oldham at home and he was steady without being outstanding. He plays alongside Lundstram another ex blue. He's their captain at 22 and he's at the centre of most things.Not Saying he should be back in the Prem, seems a touch lazy at times for me, but when he wants to turn it on he's fairly decent. Good range of passing and obvious leader. Anthony Flack 14 Posted 22/01/2017 at 17:32:13 Thanks for answers re Ledson Derek Knox 15 Posted 22/01/2017 at 18:20:13 I wish him all the best, for the future, and hope we don't regret letting him go later.Does anyone know if there was a fee involved? Phill Thompson 16 Posted 22/01/2017 at 18:47:23 John Dean # 3 , he never played against Tranmere, he's too old for this season's Youth Cup. It's was possibly Danny Bramall. Not long ago he was a regular in the England youth set, I guess that's where WHU judged him. Good luck to him, hope he makes it with them. We've got a bunch of "lesser talented" teenagers. Less talent than Davies, Dowell etc who haven't been able to break through into the U23s like Holland, Brewster, and Broadhead so just Broadhead left at USM FF for now. Kieran Kinsella 17 Posted 22/01/2017 at 19:14:25 I wonder if we will ever off-load our plethora of strikers who can't seem to make the grade. McAleny, Byrne, Duffus, Rodriguez etc that's one area where we don't seem to be producing good youngsters. Seems we are pretty well stocked for defenders and midfielders. Mike Gaynes 18 Posted 22/01/2017 at 19:27:36 Kieran, Calvert-Lewin looks the real deal. All it takes is one.And I don't believe anyone's given up on Dyson. John Dean 19 Posted 22/01/2017 at 19:36:48 Yes, Phill, my memory is as bad as I remember it being. It must have been in the Premier League International Cup that I saw Holland and I was looking forward to seeing him but he had a bad game and was subbed at half-time I think. Perhaps he knew he was on his way out and didn't feel part of the game.Surprised anybody that age and with so little experience is getting a 3½-year contract.Seen Daniel Bramall a number of times now. I'd have been much more upset if he'd signed for West Ham Pete Edwards 20 Posted 22/01/2017 at 20:00:02 Sounds to me that if the club thought he was going to be anywhere near the 1st team anytime soon they would have given him more than a 12 month contract last year.I'd say we probably have others ahead of him in the pecking order already Gavin Johnson 21 Posted 22/01/2017 at 20:08:11 Charlie (#8),Sean Doherty?! That's a name I've not heard in a very long time. Wasn't his dad a coach or scout for us?I remember that Doherty was a player everyone thought would make the breakthrough. Dark times for Everton when Fulham were seen as a more appealing club. John Collins also left us for them around the same time.Don't know anything about Nathan Holland but it shows how much talent we have when another Premier League club will give one of our lesser young stars a long contract like this. Martin Nicholls 22 Posted 22/01/2017 at 20:19:12 Gavin (#21) – Doherty didn't manage a single game for Fulham and had a journeyman career around many lower league and non-league clubs. No great loss to us! Gavin Johnson 23 Posted 22/01/2017 at 20:27:01 I know Martin. I seem to remember that it was a big deal losing him at the time though. He was a big player in our youth team. It's funny how the careers of some of the players that gain a big reputation in the youth sides seem to stall, while players we hear less of make the breakthrough. Ryan Ledson and Tom Davies a case in point. David Ellis 24 Posted 23/01/2017 at 01:02:12 Gavin- it's just weight of numbers. We have a squad of 20+ youth players and only hear about one or two (if that per generation). More likely that one of the unheard of players comes through because there are a lot more of them Dan Egerton 25 Posted 23/01/2017 at 01:56:50 This kid's a winger. He and his agent sat there and thought : look at who is ahead of us. Lookman, Lennon, McGeady. Even Del Boy has to go out on loan even with Bolasie injured and now with Baines and Coleman playing in a wingback/winger role they thought: we'll have more of a chance elsewhere. Westham is a stepdown from us, good luck to the lid. Or maybe he wants to live the dream of most British Youth, a well paid job in London with its night life. Mick Davies 26 Posted 23/01/2017 at 02:06:22 Anyone know what's happened to Liam Walsh? Big things were expected of him but it's been quiet for a long time now Peter Gorman 27 Posted 23/01/2017 at 03:23:17 Mick, Walsh has been injured - only just back into the team. Kristian Boyce 28 Posted 23/01/2017 at 19:44:20 This seems a good deal for the player and the club. Holland was probably looking at his chances of getting close to the first team over the next year or so. With the talent we have in front of him, and the club going out and spending millions on players similar in age, I guess he thought moving on would be a better option. We have 19-year-olds playing in the first team and are fixtures in the U23s, he isn't. If his contract was up in the summer, I'm thinking if he hasn't signed on by now, he may have been released anyway. The club is probably looking at that as well, and are happy to get something for him, and I would imagine there is a decent sell on clause inserted as part of the deal. Good luck to him, and if he does make it and gets a deal somewhere else, hopefully we'll benefit from that. Dan Egerton 29 Posted 24/01/2017 at 08:14:40 Do we get financial compensation for him due to his age? Or doesnt that matter with only six months left on his contract? Steve Ferns 30 Posted 24/01/2017 at 08:52:25 Yes we will either now agree a fee with West Ham or it will go to a tribunal. Even if the contract had expired, as long as we offered slightly better terms, he cannot leave us for a free.That's assuming we haven't done another "Gosling" and didn't bother to offer a new contract!As for the fee, it's a development fee and so is worth no more than a couple of million, probably won't be more than half a million hard cash and the rest on completion of conditions linked to appearances for club and country. Dave Abrahams 31 Posted 24/01/2017 at 09:29:12 Martin (#22), I think Sean Doherty is back with Everton, working with the youth coaches in some capacity.With regards to Holland and WHU, there maybe some connection to a former West Ham player Patsy Holland, but I'm just guessing about this. Martin Nicholls 32 Posted 24/01/2017 at 09:36:25 Dave (#31) – not according to the "full list of staff working within the Everton Academy" as shown on the Club official site he isn't!You may have a point about Pat Holland though! Andrew Humphrey 33 Posted 24/01/2017 at 13:27:09 Mike (18). I heard Dyson sucks Dave Abrahams 34 Posted 24/01/2017 at 13:39:17 Martin (32), Sean Doherty was reported to have come back to Everton in the last couple of seasons, he gave an interview, where he talked about how things had gone wrong with his career. Maybe things have gone wrong again and he has been and gone. Dan Egerton 35 Posted 25/01/2017 at 11:10:26 Where's the post about Donker? Dan Egerton 36 Posted 25/01/2017 at 12:28:08 Okay thanks Steve 31. 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