Saturday 23 January 2016 12:49, UK
Sam Byram has left Leeds for West Ham but can he cut it in the division above? With the help of former coach Brian McDermott and most recent boss Steve Evans, Adam Bate takes a look at his Premier League potential…
A switch from Yorkshire to east London ends months of speculation over the future of the promising full-back, whose Leeds contract was due to expire in the summer and whom Elland Road chief Massimo Cellino had admitted he planned to sell.
But what are West Ham - who beat Everton to the full-back's signature - likely to get for their £3.7m?
We just want to sell Byram because he wants to leave. It is better to lose him now. It is less painful for the club.
Leeds boss Evans - speaking to Sky Sports shortly before the deal was done - gave a revealing insight into the 22-year-old's credentials on and off the field.
"Four Premier League managers have asked me about him, mostly about his character and what he's like off the pitch," Evans says. "I couldn't have given them more glowing references than I already have. He really is such a fantastic young professional.
"He's first in the building and he's the last out. On days off, he comes in and he makes sure his recovery is right. He's always with the staff stretching and being prepared for training and when he trains, he trains with real intensity and real quality so I'm not surprised that people want to take him."
Brian McDermott - now Reading boss - was Byram's manager for over a year and the first of Cellino's six Leeds managers. He has nothing but praise for the player's attitude, calling him "a terrific character" and a "really nice lad" - but is he good enough for the Premier League?
McDermott's thoughts are obvious as soon as he begins to recollect his first sight of Byram in action. "The first game after I was appointed was against Sheffield Wednesday and he was playing," he tells Sky Sports.
"I hadn't seen him play live before and after about 20 minutes the ball came out of the sky, he chested it down and played this terrific ball out wide. I turned around to Neil Redfearn and asked, 'Who's that?!'"
Evans has similar memories of his first encounter with Byram, albeit ones coloured by the overhanging contract situation. "When we first came in, we found a young man who wasn't quite sure what was happening," he says.
"But we got him in and focused him and made it clear that, whatever happens, we needed him to get back on the training ground and work hard, play hard and get back to showing the class that he's shown in the last couple of years in the Championship."
The response was typically swift. "It was like a duck to water," adds Evans. "From the first minute we watched him train, me and my staff hadn't seen him at that close quarters before and we immediately saw what a gifted young lad he is.
"He can pick a pass, he can score a goal, he can take balls in difficult areas. His passing with both feet is technically very good, and his awareness of the game around him and his game management is, for such a young age, outstanding. He is going to play in the Premier League."
While McDermott echoes those sentiments, he feels Byram needs to play in his best position in order to fulfil his potential. Although he has enjoyed recent success on the right of midfield, his former boss is adamant that his long-term future should lie within a back-four.
He wants to be a right-back and he needs to be judged as a right-back.
"You've got to give him a chance because he's still quite inexperienced," adds McDermott. "It's hard for him because he's playing right-wing or wherever he's playing and he's a right-back. He wants to be a right-back and he needs to be judged as a right-back because he's not a right-winger."
Evans had repeatedly encouraged Byram to commit and, before his next move was sealed, admitted he hoped Byram would be given sufficient game-time to develop.
"The grass isn't always greener somewhere else," Evans said. "I think if he goes, and it is if he goes, he'll have to see a real progression plan for himself.
"I don't think it enhances him at all to go and sit on the bench for six months. I'm not saying he's going to start on the first Saturday after he signs but he'd be needing to see a career plan to the first team."
"He has been bought for the future and long term he could well be an English international," said West Ham joint-chairman David Sullivan of his new signing.
