When England won the 1966 World Cup, famously three of the key players in the final against West Germany had graduated from West Ham’s youth set up.

As captain, Bobby Moore would lift the Jules Rimet trophy, Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick proved the difference (although there are still doubts whether his second goal of the day crossed the line) and Martin Peters got the other goal in that final.

Peters left the Hammers in 1970 as he sought new challenges. But the fact that Hurst remained at West Ham for 13 years and Moore never left tells you quite a lot about the loyalty that abounded at the time.

Golden generation

30 years on, another generation of promising youngsters was coming through at “The Academy of Football” from the mid-90s under the eye of renowned academy coach Tony Carr.

They may have been mistaken for a “golden generation” at international level but likes of Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick have all secured a large haul of trophies and medals during their club careers – the only caveat being that none were won at West Ham.

One by one each player moved to a bigger club as did other successful graduates of the famed youth system such as Jermain Defoe and Glen Johnson.

However Joe Cole will hope to have a second coming at Upton Park after disappointing spells at Liverpool and Chelsea.

As he reacquaints himself with his childhood stomping ground he is joined by the current academy graduates in the West Ham squad: Mark Noble, Mark Collison and James Tomkins. That trio will probably not reach the level that their forbearers did, but the graphic below shows what might have been in the outfield positions if the Hammers had kept their brightest young stars nailed down…