Inside Brad Dolaghan’s 12-Month West Ham Whirlwind
James McLeish speaks to National League South top goalscorer, Brad Dolaghan, about his year in a Premier League academy and how it shaped his development.
A typical Premier League academy prospect signs their first professional contract after a decade of trips to a top-flight training ground, summer tours playing football on the continent, media training sessions, and years of being taken out of school early to go and play amongst the best of their generation.
According to a study by The Athletic, only 0.5% of players who join a youth academy go on to have a professional career. At the age of 19, those aforementioned future stars are heading out on their first senior loan spells, or perhaps even breaking into the first team.
Brad Dolaghan was working in his dad’s phone shop.
Like any other kid, becoming a Premier League footballer was a lifelong dream of his, but as he approached the twilight of his teens, the chances of that becoming a reality shrank from the already small percentile to essentially zero.
That was until Nathan Bowen, football director at Worthing FC, received a call from Nicky Shorey – head of recruitment at West Ham’s academy – less than 24 hours after the club’s 2023/24 campaign concluded.
“It was one of many phone calls I received that summer as Brad had shown what we already knew. He’s one of the most natural finishers out there.” Bowen reminisced.
“Good, young strikers are hard to come by, and Brad had already had trials at a couple of Scottish clubs and Blackpool, so it was inevitable that a big team would enquire.”
“He had scored nearly 150 goals for us at U18 and U19 level, which put him on the radar of a lot of teams, but I feel there was probably a bit of doubt about his physicality at the top level. However, after his breakthrough season [2023/24], a few clubs were ready to give him an opportunity, but West Ham were the biggest and got in there first.”
“To be honest, I cried,” Dolaghan exclaimed, recounting his reaction to the phone call offering him a contract in East London. In Bowen’s eyes, it had been a long time coming.
“I’ve been lucky enough to work with him since he was about 12 years old. Brad has been the main driver in his own career, and we are really proud of the environment we provide, and that includes so many people behind the scenes to make it work.”
To exchange a part-time training plan at Woodside Road, home of Worthing FC, for a non-stop schedule at West Ham’s multi-million-pound-valued Rush Green was nothing but a seismic shock to the system. However, Dolaghan’s biggest surprise arrived in the most unexpected of places: “I’m going to pee, as you are in the urinal and along comes [James] Ward-Prowse and I was like, checked to my left and I was like, wow, is that actually Ward-Prowse?”
Dolaghan would acclimatise to his surroundings both on the pitch and in the bathrooms, which in his case was a group of players he’d grown up watching from his Sussex-situated home. The more permanent stain that he struggled to remove from his reputation was that he was coming from the non-league.
Piecing together the lens through which he was viewed by his academy teammates, Dolaghan explained: “I was looked down on quite a lot coming from non-league. A lot of the lads, through no fault of their own, just don’t rate the level.”
It was an underdog story that any scriptwriter would be proud of: “I had a point to prove, really, that I could play at their level. I just had to be strong mentally, and I had to try and take no criticism from them because they gave me a bit of stick, like banter, but at the time I was still in a bit of an uncomfortable position; I didn’t really know anyone.”
A sense of isolation was woven into Dolaghan’s words. Off the pitch, his West Ham escapades were the first time he had been away from home for more than a two or three-month period, and as he put it, the then-teenager had to become “more independent” in every way.
On the pitch, it was the lack of a presence in the stands which hit him the hardest: “I prefer my time now here at Worthing than I do at West Ham just playing in front of a crowd… being a Worthing lad, being able to go out there and affect 2,000 people that come here and put a smile on people’s faces is massive.”
It’s easy to forget that for many footballers, playing in the Premier League isn’t the most painstaking be-all and end-all. Now that his time in the capital has come to a close, Dolaghan has realised that he is happier in his hometown.
“I lived here, was born here, lived 10 minutes from Woodside, so it means a lot more for me. Every game is personal for me, I want to win and I want to see this club be where everyone wants it to be in the next division” he reflected, “being a West Ham player is obviously a little bit different, not really got too much of a personal connection with West Ham, and also you’re part of the academy so you don’t really have too much of an effect on the fan base.”
Since speaking to Dolaghan, he has claimed his second National League South Player of the Month award this season, clinched the league’s golden boot, and above all, steered Worthing into the fifth tier for the first time in their 140-year existence.
His haul of 23 goals made up almost a quarter of Worthing’s 99 strikes this season, as Dolaghan was integral throughout the history-making year, but it’s hard to believe all of this season’s success would’ve arrived without his mentorship at the Irons.
“I learned so much at West Ham by just being in and around really, really good people, players and coaches.”
“I improved so much as a player because of that, mentally, physically and everything really, like on the ball and in front of the goal.”
“I just didn’t want to take it for granted,” he added; “there’s millions and millions of people that would love to be in my position… and so when I was there I just wanted to take it as it comes, not get ahead of myself and just enjoy every moment of it because it only lasted a year, but I have no regrets, that year was brilliant.”
Bowen’s parting words of advice for Dolaghan and his future were concise but meaningful, stating that he needs to “keep showing the belief in himself and keep working hard.”
“He is one of the most ambitious people I know and is desperate to make it to the top. The best way to do that is to keep playing, keep scoring goals, keep working hard every day, and the rest will come”