Reece Oxford slams former club West Ham for attitude accusations
Reece Oxford was the next great thing when he broke into the West Ham first team at 16 years of age but things went rapidly downhill from there.
Now 23-years-old and playing for Borussia Monchengladbach in Germany, the Irons academy graduate has opened up on his time with the club.
He has suggested that expectations of him were far too high when he emerged into the reckoning at such a young age and that accusations of a poor attitude were completely false.
“Everyone thought I was Superman and no one really knew what went on behind closed doors,” Oxford said in an interview with The Telegraph. “I was 16 and everyone thought I could play every week not knowing that I had injuries after a certain amount of games.
“I had been with the first team since I was 14. I was never on my age group’s schedule, with the gym work and everything. All the things you need to make sure your muscles are ready for the professional game.
“[Instead] I was straight into the professional game. Injuries – back pains, hamstring problems, everything. Maybe I also got a bit lost in the bubble because you would when you are 16 and coming out of school.
“I never had the attitude that they said I did. You can ask everyone around West Ham. That was the picture they painted and it wasn’t a good one.”
What could’ve been
Perhaps this is a very good reminder of what not to do when a really good young talent breaks into the senior team at any professional football club.
Far too often in the modern game, people forget that these supremely talented teenagers aren’t the complete finished product and we can’t afford to keep treating them like they are.
When you are so inexperienced, you are going to make mistakes and being a defender, like Oxford is, those errors could well lead to a goal but we have to stop crucifying them if they do so.
Things may have changed at West Ham recently with David Moyes preferring to have adequately mature and experienced players in his side.
Hopefully, that will protect some of the best talents at the London Stadium from having the same dramatic fall as Oxford did and the club can truly profit long term as a result.
In other West Ham news, this Champions League winning attacker is one of the names linked with a summer move to the Hammers.