Michail gives ’em some hammer

IF CRAIG Eastmond and Matthew Briggs don’t want to be reminded of how life could have been for them as Premier League starlets at Arsenal and Fulham, they might want to avoid reading interviews conducted by former schoolmate Michail Antonio.

The 25-year-old’s career is now on an upward trajectory having been stopped by his mother, Cislyn, from joining Tottenham at the age of 14 in order to concentrate on his education.

West Ham’s new winger has worked his way up from Non-League Tooting & Mitcham United, where he was spotted by Reading and loaned to Cheltenham, Southampton, Colchester and Sheffield Wednesday before a permanent move to Nottingham Forest, who banked £7m for him last month.

Eastmond played four times for the Gunners but is now at Sutton United, and Briggs – now at Colchester after spending time there on loan from Millwall last term – is still the youngest to appear in the top-flight after making his Cottagers bow in 2007 aged 16 years and 68 days.

“They went through the academy system and they’re working their way down – I’m working my way up,” Antonio told the in a matter of fact way this week. Ouch!