A bunch of blokes are arguing about football at Cassettari’s Cafe on Barking Road, E13. Salt and pepper shakers are used as makeshift players, and an ashtray as the ball, but they’ve risked the wrath of the waitress by marking the penalty spot with a blob of mustard.
This is where the search for the origins of West Ham’s ‘Academy of Football’ takes you — to a family-run East End establishment frequented by the then-Second Division team’s players throughout the 1950s where tea and tactics were on the menu.
Broke, manager Ted Fenton realised youth was a must.