The 17-year-old has penned a three-year deal with the Hammers and has joined Mark Robson’s outfit in the club’s youth ranks.
Kelly made his professional debut last season against Carrick Rangers in the Northern Ireland Football League and was a member of Coleraine’s Europa Conference League team against FK Velez Mostar.
Kelly is expected to slot into West Ham’s development squad and the Coleraine boss has told Hammers fans that the club are getting a teen talent who has developed remarkably.
Kearney further added that Kelly responded admirably to his methods to nurture the player and stressed that 17-year-old is the only bright spark from club’s last season.
“His development on the pitch has been brilliant, his development off the pitch has been brilliant as well in relation to a senior changing room can be a tough place to be around”, Kearney told the club’s official site.
“He came on a European trip with us at 16 years of age and roomed with Stephen Lowry and we didn’t bring anyone else at the same age as we really wanted to fast track his development and how he conducted himself around the senior squad.
“From experience, if you bring one or two kids together they just gravitate to each other and don’t make the progress that you would like”, he added.
“There are a lot of things we did methodically to try and push him on quickly and the best credit you can give him is that he responded to it.
“Patrick went straight at it; at the training, at the changing room and at anything from that point of view and probably what wasn’t a memorable season and one that I found really disappointing, I think it’s safe to say that Patrick was the one big, bright spark from last season that I’ll look fondly back on in the years to come.”
Kelly made 17 appearances for Coleraine last season and the player can play as central midfielder as well as a winger.
He will now be looking to kick on with his development at West Ham.
