Josh Cullen was expected to leave West Ham and rejoin Bolton on loan in January.
Josh Cullen could be wondering what could have been after the West Ham United midfielder was forced to remain at the London Stadium for the second half of the season.
The injury to Spaniard Pedro Obiang saw David Moyes decide to keep the Hammers academy graduate in east London, after the 21-year-old spent the first half of the season on loan at Championship outfit Bolton Wanderers.
The Bolton News reported that Wanderers manager Phil Parkinson was looking to bring Cullen back to the Championship side, along with defender Reece Burke who also returned to West Ham at the start of January.
Parkinson managed to lure Burke back to Lancashire, but only because the Hammers have plenty of options in central defence in the likes of Winston Reid, Angelo Ogbonna, Declan Rice and James Collins.
However, Cullen was deemed more important and before Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Liverpool, the Ireland youth international had made the bench five successive times under Moyes.
But on Saturday, Cullen was nowhere to be seen and he should surely now be regretting West Ham’s decision to keep him instead of letting him go to get more first-team football at Bolton.
Cullen returned at the start of the year to play for the Hammers in their FA Cup matches against Shrewsbury Town and Wigan, clocking up 300 minutes in total.
But if his omission becomes a regular occurrence, Cullen could find his West Ham future in doubt with only 18 months remaining on his current deal with the Hammers.
But if he had been given the chance to go out on loan, Cullen would have been able to gain precious first-team minutes to aid his development as well as showing Moyes what he can do as he becomes somewhat of a contract concern.
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