Jamal Baptiste

[steveyrockstar]

Once lauded as our most promising academy prospect, the young CB has confirmed via The Athletic that he's leaving this summer. He also revealed that he'd been suffering with Guillain-barre syndrome.

Moyes recently spoke out that he'd had a lot of off-field issues, and also hadn't done himself any favours. So apart from poor timekeeping, I'm not sure if there's been other issues afoot.

Will be interesting to see where he goes with his career because at one point, he was definitely bigged up as our next likely one to breakthrough.

Good luck to the kid.

Full article for those with Athletic subs. https://theathletic.com/4509490/2023/05 ... -west-ham/

[DenziMart]

The most telling part for me is this comment: "I don’t want to go training just to practically do nothing"

It takes a lot to make it as a professional footballer and if you're not 100% committed you won't make it. I bet Declan at the same age was ready to train every day, rain or shine, no matter whether he was in the team or not. I know Jamal had an illness, but aside from that seems like he's head isn't/wasn't there. It's shame because it seems like he had massive potential. Hope he sorts himself out and makes a real go of it and we don't read an article about him in years to come about scratching a living in lower leagues or minor leagues overseas.

[Up the Junction]

And for those who don't...


On David Sullivan: “He has helped me massively,” says Baptiste. “I had glandular fever which later developed into Guillain-Barre syndrome (a rare and serious condition that affects the nerves).

“It was a difficult time in my life. Sullivan let me see his private doctor and I can’t thank him enough for actually believing me that there was something wrong in the first place.

“He trusted me, and I thankfully found out I had an issue which needed to be sorted out. I thanked him big time because he’s the one who pushed for the tests. I saw his doctor four to five times in the space of a week.”


On his illness: “There were times where I’d be at training and I’m falling asleep in the physio’s room, but I’ve had a long sleep the day before,” Baptiste says. “People were thinking I was always going to bed late.

“I think that affected my timekeeping and occasionally turning up to training late. Maybe I should’ve dealt with that better by speaking to coaches or getting help earlier. I always hold myself accountable but there were times I’d wake up and think, ‘I’m not playing football. I’m not doing what I love. I don’t want to go training just to practically do nothing’.

“That wasn’t the way to think and, thankfully, I’ve got out of that mindset. I could’ve had eight hours of sleep, wake up to go to training and I’d still feel tired. Straight away, I knew the difference between me being tired and me physically not being able to play. I’d run and it felt like I was being held back by a sack of sand. I would try to do things I’d normally do and it wouldn’t come off. I just didn’t feel like me.

“The illness itself killed all of the good cells and germs in my body, so there was a lot of bacteria in my blood cells. So for my body to function, I had to rest and let it repair. There was nothing I could take to quicken the process. It was just time and recovery — and that was hard. It’s the longest I’ve gone without playing football and I didn’t know when I’d be able to return. I was determined to recover and get back to where I was.

“I feel like people held such a high standard towards me that they disregard that I’ve never been injured before, or had other setbacks. I was struggling to deal with the situation but when I got help from the right people, I was relieved.”


On opening up: “Drills that I’d normally find comfortable were a lot tougher and I struggled with completing them,” he says. “I finished the previous season on a high and I was pretty fit. Initially, I didn’t think too much of it and I thought I’d be fine after a month or so. But after a few weeks, training became much harder. I wasn’t able to perform the way I usually perform.

“I spoke to the coaches and physios at the club about my situation. I didn’t want it to seem like I wasn’t trying as hard as the others. But some people at the club didn’t really take much notice of what I was saying.

“I was screaming for help in July in Scotland (where West Ham began their pre-season) and then we went to Portugal (with the under-21s). I didn’t know what it was but I knew there was an issue. I was disappointed that it took so long for things to change. I played the first game of the season against Arsenal (in Premier League 2 — Division 1) and after that’s when I told them I can’t play with this pain anymore.”

[HammerMan2004]

Also noteworthy...

By February, Moyes said: “He’s had real problems. Problems I won’t discuss here — but real problems. He’s someone we really like as a boy, like as a player. He’s had difficult times and he’s not helped himself, I’ve got to say, partly as well.”

[flaneur]

He also revealed that he'd been suffering with Guillain-barre syndrome.

Guillain–Barré is incredibly varied in severity and duration. It's pretty common for sufferers to have long-term pain and fatigue even after all the initial symptoms have resolved which could significantly affect your athletic ability and are frustratingly invisible. It's a pretty shocking condition to develop for a young man with the world at his feet who might have felt indestructible up to that point.

[Paolopaul]

A sad story to suffer from illness so young and I can only imagine the pressure to keep on going, whether from others or from himself. Hope he can still make a career out of football but might not be easy to find a club ready to take the risk so he may end up on short term contracts.

Credit to Sullivan for helping him out - and not going to the press straight away for the positive PR.

[NWhammer]

That story isn’t a good look for the academy, good look to the lad. Hopefully he can find his way back.

[stu1]

Once lauded as our most promising academy prospect, the young CB has confirmed via The Athletic that he's leaving this summer. He also revealed that he'd been suffering with Guillain-barre syndrome.

Moyes recently spoke out that he'd had a lot of off-field issues, and also hadn't done himself any favours. So apart from poor timekeeping, I'm not sure if there's been other issues afoot.

Until I read that article I was under the impressive he’d stop progressing due to attitude, which turns out not to be true. Moyes didn’t do him any favours with the comments he made.

Good luck to the kid and a real shame he won’t maximise his potential, both for him and for us!

[Larrakeyah Hammer]

Hopefully he can get back to playing football at some level

The German defender Markus Babbel got it during his career whilst at Liverpool and was able to return

[Wilko1304]

Just hope he can go on, recover fully and realise his potential. More importantly, I hope he can find joy playing football again.

Not a good look for the club, I don’t think. Allowed a story to develop in rumour about attitude due to a throwaway comment that was clearly not thought through. Not an egregious mistake, but one made by a club that doesn’t know or value all its individuals enough.

[Noble Man]

Until I read that article I was under the impressive he’d stop progressing due to attitude, which turns out not to be true. Moyes didn’t do him any favours with the comments he made.

Good luck to the kid and a real shame he won’t maximise his potential, both for him and for us!

Wouldn't be the first time either - one of the things i don't like about him. His treatment of Said has also been poor.

Good luck to the lad - terrible to have to readjust your life at such a young age

[fjthegrey]

For all we know Baptiste did have an attitude problem though. Moyes could well have spoken the truth, even with the medical issues clearly having a significant effect.

[The Straw]

Moyes was correct though. It was well-known around the club that Baptiste had horrendous time-keeping issues. Obviously the other stuff has come to light later.

[szola]

The staff should have noticed the dip in form, and acted pro-actively.

[MorthwylMawr]

Sad story, i hope he goes on and fulfills his potential. It must have been heartbreaking for him.

I hope the Academy and wider club learn as much as they can about how they handled it and if it could have been handled differently, learn some lessons if they're there to be learnt.

Perhaps DM's comments were made without the full diagnosis being known at the point.

Some credit to DS.

[SammyTheHammer]

Guillain–Barré is incredibly varied in severity and duration. It's pretty common for sufferers to have long-term pain and fatigue even after all the initial symptoms have resolved which could significantly affect your athletic ability and are frustratingly invisible. It's a pretty shocking condition to develop for a young man with the world at his feet who might have felt indestructible up to that point.

Don’t know much about the disease but a childhood friend of mine just passed away from respiratory failure from GBS at 35 years old - he was a very healthy fella too.

That is first I had ever heard of it, but from my experience it’s no joke.

[Eggchaser]

Until I read that article I was under the impressive he’d stop progressing due to attitude, which turns out not to be true. Moyes didn’t do him any favours with the comments he made.

Good luck to the kid and a real shame he won’t maximise his potential, both for him and for us!

Or maybe Moyes was getting the wrong message from the medical team and his coaches, who perhaps could have done more to get to the bottom of the perceived change in attitude?

[S-H]

Moyes out!

[Wilko1304]

For all we know Baptiste did have an attitude problem though. Moyes could well have spoken the truth, even with the medical issues clearly having a significant effect.

Moyes was correct though. It was well-known around the club that Baptiste had horrendous time-keeping issues. Obviously the other stuff has come to light later.

It's horrific management of a teenager. If he didn't care enough to get involved and know better, he shouldn't think he has a need to talk about it.

[Roby]

You’d think they’d just give him a one year deal on just say for example £2k per week to help him out and as recognition that he’d been Ill.

The fact they didn’t could mean a number of things.

Shame it didn’t work out for the lad and hope he gets a new club.