'Top player': West Ham wonderkid is following in Declan Rice's footsteps

Harrison Ashby west ham newcastle — Photo by Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images

West Ham United coach Mark Robson believes the Premier League club have a ‘top player’ in highly-rated defender Harrison Ashby, speaking to the Hammers’ website.

The Scotland U21 international has already played five times for David Moyes’ first-team, including the full 90 minutes as a much-changed side took on Dinamo Zagreb in the Europa League group-stages in December.

In fact, he’d probably have featured more frequently too, if West Ham didn’t have such a surplus of talented right-backs at their disposal.

Ashby remains fourth in the pecking order, behind Ben Johnson, Vladimir Coufal and Ryan Fredericks.

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He may be climbing the ladder sooner rather than later, however. Fredericks is out of contract in July. And Johnson is just as comfortable on the left as he is on the right.

And more displays like Monday’s – the swashbuckling Ashby grabbed his fifth assist of the Premier League 2 campaign when setting up Sonny Perkins’ strike during the 3-1 victory over Tottenham – and he will soon become a regular feature in Moyes’ matchday squad soon enough.

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“It was really good to see Harrison and Manny back (after injury),” says U23 coach Robson, who was also full of praise for Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Longelo.

“For Manny, it was his second game after Brighton, so he’s had two matches back. Harrison adds a lot to us as a player and he’s a top player. And that’s the standard that I want from everyone.”