Marshall 'ready' to carve out a reputation at Luton after surprise Hammers exit

​New Luton striker Callum Marshall declared he was ‘ready’ to carve out a reputation for himself with the Hatters after moving to Kenilworth Road following what was a surprise exit from West Ham United last week.

Although at the age of 21 the forward is still in the early stages of his career, he joins Town with well over 50 league outings under his belt so far, including featuring twice in the Premier League for his former side, with three Championship substitute outings for West Bromwich Albion when on loan at the Hawthorns in the second half of the 2023-24 campaign.

The following year saw Marshall head to Huddersfield Town when the club were in League One, as he made 46 appearances for the Terriers, scoring 10 goals, a loan spell that saw him named Player of the Season during his time in Yorkshire. Last term he went to Bundesliga.2 outfit VfL Bochum, featuring 16 times, with two goals, which means that he comes to a Town side, themselves in the third tier, with a real confidence about being able to hit the ground running from the word go, saying: “I don’t think I’ve come in here as a junior player.

"I know I’m still young but I don’t feel like I’m coming in and I’m not ready, I think I’m ready to play. I’ve had a few different experiences, obviously I was playing a bit of first team before I came over to West Ham at Linfield and then I worked my way up through West Ham. I played for Huddersfield and went to Germany as well so I’ve had a load of different experiences and I would say I do have a bit of experience under my belt. Also the Saturday, Tuesday, it shows that I’m robust enough to play that many games as it was hard.

"When you get to December, January, you do get tired of playing Saturday, Tuesday a lot, but I enjoyed my time at Huddersfield and hopefully this season goes even better than the one at Huddersfield. I had a great loan spell personally myself but I don’t think we achieved the things we wanted to as a team.

"We missed out on the play-offs, by January I think we were a couple of points off second, then we dropped off towards the end, but personally it went well for me. Germany was quite an up and down loan for me, but I got on well with all the lads. Luckily for me, all the lads spoke English as I couldn’t speak German, so it turned out to be okay. I was a bit nervous going over there, but it was a good experience, different.”

Despite having had a full season in League One and surely setting his sights on playing as high as he could, there was no concern for Marshall about returning to the level for a second time in his fledgling career, as the forward knows a successful stint with Town will only help him in the long run. He continued: “I don’t have any qualms (about dropping down). I know that the only way to play in higher leagues is to build yourself a name here.

"Obviously Luton are going to be hopefully pushing for promotion this year, so I signed a deal for a couple of years. Hopefully in those couple of years we can go up as a team and then I’ll be playing in the Championship, but I have no problem playing League One. I just want to be playing football and in a team that plays football that’s going to suit me and do me well in the long run.”

With the Hammers relegated out of the Premier League to the Championship, there were some Irons fans who thought the Northern Ireland international, who has 14 caps to his name since his debut against Denmark in June 2023, could play a part in returning the club to the top flight. Marshall admitted it had come as something of a surprise to find out he was leaving the London Stadium, saying: “I was disappointed to leave (West Ham) in the end. I didn’t think I’d be leaving so soon, but decisions were made and I knew I needed to find somewhere else to build a career for myself.

"Hopefully it’s good for me, but the West Ham fans have always backed me, so it’s nice to hear people are disappointed that I was leaving. We were going through a really difficult period at West Ham when I got my debut, so I was coming into games where we were losing and we were just defending. I was proud to get my debut, it was a long time coming. I’d been there three or four years at that point, so I was really looking forward to it and happy I got that, but I think it’s time for me to be playing regular football now."