West Ham U18 coach Jack Collison is delighted to see manager Manuel Pellegrini dipping into the youth system for first teamers this season.

Pellegrini has given no fewer than six Academy graduates game-time since his arrival in east London last summer – captain Mark Noble, Declan Rice, Grady Diangana, Joe Powell, Conor Coventry and Ben Johnson have all featured – and invited a host of other scholars to train with his first-team squad.

Collison told the Evening Standard: “West Ham has been known for having a good academy for years, for producing these players and it seemed like there was a slow up on the conveyor belt.

“Managers are working on a short time frame sometimes, can they trust the young players, maybe not. But as you see with Pellegrini this year he is certainly not scared to chuck them in."