West Ham United have endured somewhat of a woeful domestic campaign under David Moyes, with European football providing the only solace for the club.
They find themselves languishing in the Premier League relegation zone, just ten months since finishing the season in seventh position and securing continental football for the second year on the bounce.
Moyes’ summer signings haven’t quite lived up to expectations, with Lucas Paqueta and Gianluca Scamacca severely underperforming and considering they were signed in order to take the Hammers to the next level, it’s been extremely disappointing to see.
The Italian arrived having netted 18 Serie A goals for Sassuolo last season, and he certainly looked like he could improve the clubs' firepower.
The £90k-per-week hitman has struggled however, scoring only eight goals so far and one of his attempts on goal during a defeat to Liverpool earlier in the season was dubbed “woeful” by journalist Toby Cudworth, suggesting how poor he had been during his early stages.
The end of the campaign is fast approaching and Scamacca has been a shadow of the striker he was last season in Italy and things have to change.
Moyes may unleash a youngster who certainly looks like he is about to burst onto the scene – Divin Mubama.
Who is Divin Mubama?
The 18-year-old striker is the future of the club, the question is, when will he finally make his breakthrough into becoming a first-team regular?
The West Ham faithful may argue that the time is now, especially with the poor form of Scamacca and with the youngster scoring against AEK Larnaca last week, he finally has his first goal for the senior side.
The youngster has scored an impressive 49 times from just 76 appearances across the U18 and U21 age groups, and he has even been hailed as a “top talent” by writer Will Lebeau following his recent success.
He is still extremely raw and has plenty to learn, but with senior figures such as Michail Antonio and Declan Rice to provide him with words of encouragement, he may well be ready to make his mark sooner rather than later.
Unless Scamacca can drastically improve between now and the end of the season, Mubama might find himself with the chance burst into the first team scene sooner than even he would have imagined.
After all, it can't get much worse for the Hammers. Trusting in youth could well be the way to go between now and the season's climax.