IT is great to see Slaven Bilic giving youth a chance in Declan Rice.

The youngster came on against Manchester United on the opening day of the Premier League season and he looked comfortable on the ball.

He then made his first Premier League start in the 3-2 defeat to Southampton on Saturday and I think he has been a revelation.

Clubs like West Ham United can’t spend £50million on a player so it is important to have young players coming through.

I think it is a necessity for each club to have two or three players coming through the ranks every season.

If you don’t have that, then I would say it is poor.

Hammers co-chairman David Gold made comments in the summer about how unlikely it is for a teenager to make it into a Premier League first team without going out on loan.

My son, Liam, is a member of the West Ham academy, so it was really upsetting for me to see comments like that.

Other teams like Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur have given youth a chance in recent years and it has worked out for them.

Tottenham got a large fee for Ryan Mason from Hull City after he played only a few games.

I am not too worried about the start to the season despite losing the opening two games.

The Manchester United game came too early for us. They are a very good side and West Ham’s signings hadn’t bedded in yet.

I think West Ham would have beaten Southampton were it not for Marko Arnautovic’s first half red card.

He apologised after the game and rightly so. But I think we held our own and looked capable of beating them even with 10 men.

I think if West Ham sign William Carvalho, that would be a great addition to Bilic’s squad.