Reece Oxford

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Been mentioned a few times over the last year or so, now in The Times, possible £8M buy. Not sure what's "audacious" about it though.

Mostly hidden behind the paywall:

Manchester United are preparing an audacious £8 million bid to sign Reece Oxford from West Ham United in the January transfer window.

The 16-year-old centre back is expected to sign a two-and-a-half year contract at Upton Park when he turns 17 this month, but the club are unable to tie him down for any longer because of FA rules preventing players under the age of 18 from signing three-year deals.
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http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/article4631844.ece
 
What's audacious is that there's no way they'd accept 8 million for him!
 
According to the Times article he started the first two games of the season and played 8 minutes against Liverpool but hasn't featured since.
 
Maybe they didnt want to give him more chance until he put a proof of loyalty on paper or something.
 
Devil may care said:
Eh? How much do you think they'd want for a completely unproven kid?
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Why would be willing to pay 8m for a player if he didnt have potential?
8m is nothing, especially with the new TV deal and West Ham moving to a new stadium next year.

If he is the does anything to justify the hype, West Ham could make 3-4x the amount in a couple of years.

No reason to accept the bid unless the player wants out... or they don't think he is good enough.
 
prateik said:
Why would be willing to pay 8m for a player if he didnt have potential?
8m is nothing, especially with the new TV deal and West Ham moving to a new stadium next year.

If he is the does anything to justify the hype, West Ham could make 3-4x the amount in a couple of years.

No reason to accept the bid unless the player wants out... or they don't think he is good enough.
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He could just as easy be another over hyped kid that amounts to nothing. £8M for a 16 year old is good business.
 
Devil may care said:
He could just as easy be another over hyped kid that amounts to nothing. £8M for a 16 year old is good business.
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He could be but do you think Everton would of sold Rooney for 8 million? Young talented players go for a lot of money, especially when they've already played well in the first team and they're English
 
Jammydodger7 said:
He could be but do you think Everton would of sold Rooney for 8 million? Young talented players go for a lot of money, especially when they've already played well in the first team and they're English
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Rooney had played consistently well for Everton in the PL as a starter for 2 full seasons and was a capped senior international and a unique talent, I think we forget how good he was given how bad he is these days.
 
Devil may care said:
He hasn't done a thing yet, he could just as easily be the next Rodwell or Johnson.
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He could but why would West Ham risk losing a huge talent for just 8 million? Rodwell and Johnson both failed to live up to expectations but they are both still worth around the 5-8 million mark so West Ham wouldn't lose out on much anyway if he failed to live up to expectations. Also he was MOTM in his first game against Arsenal, that shows that he's got the talent and the pressure wont get to him
 
Jammydodger7 said:
He could but why would West Ham risk losing a huge talent for just 8 million? Rodwell and Johnson both failed to live up to expectations but they are both still worth around the 5-8 million mark so West Ham wouldn't lose out on much anyway if he failed to live up to expectations. Also he was MOTM in his first game against Arsenal, that shows that he's got the talent and the pressure wont get to him
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£8M guaranteed right now for a kid that isn't even a regular first team fixture is better than gambling for most clubs, we sold Evans, an experienced CB, for less than that this summer, who knows what the future holds.
 
Devil may care said:
£8M guaranteed right now for a kid that isn't even a regular first team fixture is better than gambling for most clubs, we sold Evans, an experienced CB, for less than that this summer, who knows what the future holds.
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How does rejecting an £8 million bid and keeping a promising youngster count as 'gambling'?
They can make £8 million on a player at any time. They can't create promising youngsters any time.
 
Since he's 16 and thus hasn't signed a professional contract yet, shouldn't we be able to sign him for compensation?
 
Speak said:
How does rejecting an £8 million bid and keeping a promising youngster count as 'gambling'?
They can make £8 million on a player at any time. They can't create promising youngsters any time.
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Because he could peter out to nothing, or he could become good and run down his contract at 19 and leave on a free. This would be £8m in the bank for nothing more than a maybe.
 
Devil may care said:
Because he could peter out to nothing, or he could become good and run down his contract at 19 and leave on a free. This would be £8m in the bank for nothing more than a maybe.
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The only issue is that he could leave for free in this circumstance. If West Ham get the hunch that he's leaving then, yes, they should cash in, because he's off anyway. And his development wont benefit them in any way.
But in any other circumstance, I don't see why him maybe petering out into nothing means they should see £8 million as a good deal.

There are lots of grey areas between petering into nothing and becoming a top player. He's 16; he could provide years of service. Even if he turns out to be a Jake Livermore-level player, he'll could still fetch £8 million in a few years. And he'd have given them years of service.

If we were talking £25 million, I'd possibly agree.

Edit: And if, as you say, he becomes good and leaves at 19, it's debatable whether that's worth more than £8 million. If he becomes that good that quickly, they'll benefit off his quality for two years +. And during the two years, West Ham could potentially convince him to sign some sort of deal that benefits both parties but allows him to leave for a bigger club.
 
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Speak said:
The only issue is that he could leave for free in this circumstance. If West Ham get the hunch that he's leaving then, yes, they should cash in, because he's off anyway. And his development wont benefit them in any way.
But in any other circumstance, I don't see why him maybe petering out into nothing means they should see £8 million as a good deal.

There are lots of grey areas between petering into nothing and becoming a top player. He's 16; he could provide years of service. Even if he turns out to be a Jake Livermore-level player, he'll could still fetch £8 million in a few years. And he'd have given them years of service.

If we were talking £25 million, I'd possibly agree.

Edit: And if, as you say, he becomes good and leaves at 19, it's debatable whether that's worth more than £8 million. If he becomes that good that quickly, they'll benefit off his quality for two years +, and they could potentially convince him to sign some sort of deal that benefits both parties but allows him to leave for a bigger club.
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Rather than go round in circles are you suggesting West Han should just hang tight or that we should offer a lot more to make sure we get him? As my point is that from a United point of view he's certainly not worth paying more than £8M for right now.
 
Devil may care said:
Rather than go round in circles are you suggesting West Han should just hang tight or that we should offer a lot more to make sure we get him? As my point is that from a United point of view he's certainly not worth paying more than £8M for right now.
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That West Ham wouldn't be taking a 'gamble' by not selling him, and that they should keep him, unless a bigger offer comes in or he makes it clear he's leaving ASAP.
 
Speak said:
That West Ham wouldn't be taking a 'gamble' by not selling him, and that they should keep him, unless a bigger offer comes in or he makes it clear he's leaving ASAP.
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Fair enough, I think there's no evidence that would suggest £8M right now is not a good deal, but time will tell.
 
Looks like we're going all out for tge kids atm, linked with Oxford, Calhanoglu, Dembele, Perez, Musonda, and Lewis Cook that I can think of, most from semi reliable sources.

Wouldn't mind betting we sign non.
 
Cameron Jerome is being linked with an 8m pound move to Middlesbrough. By that going rate 8m for a top English prospect is peanuts for us. Hope we get him. I'm excited by his potential.
 
drdoityourself said:
Cameron Jerome is being linked with an 8m pound move to Middlesbrough. By that going rate 8m for a top English prospect is peanuts for us. Hope we get him. I'm excited by his potential.
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We also signed TFM, Adnan, Andreas, and probably Pogba too for a few hundred k each. Going by that rate it is madness.
 
limerickcitykid said:
We also signed TFM, Adnan, Andreas, and probably Pogba too for a few hundred k each. Going by that rate it is madness.
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That was a few years back, they're foreign (always cheaper) and none of them had played at senior level. That performance against Arsenal was bound to inflate his value. Chris Smalling had only a few appearances at Fulham yet we paid 10 million for him, and that was a few years back. Transfers between two established PL clubs these days are always expensive. For me, a fee around 8 million makes sense.
 
drdoityourself said:
That was a few years back, they're foreign (always cheaper) and none of them had played at senior level. That performance against Arsenal was bound to inflate his value. Chris Smalling had only a few appearances at Fulham yet we paid 10 million for him, and that was a few years back. Transfers between two established PL clubs these days are always expensive. For me, a fee around 8 million makes sense.
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TFM was just last year. I don't see how a couple senior performances boosts someones value by about 2000% Chris Smalling is an anomaly and was also about five years older. It doesn't make sense when you can buy over 10 of the top rated 16 year olds across Europe for the same price.
 
Interesting player.

How does he differ to Fosu Mensah though? Is there really need to pay £8m when we have a similar player in terms of style and versatility in our academy of a similar age? Although if both turn out big, a midfield of Oxford and Mensah would look fearsome and huge :drool:
 
They won't accept less than say what a less or equally unproven Callum Chambers went for at the time.

Anyway, we have 3/4 good similar CB/DM prospects in the same age group coming through. Tuanzebe, Fosu Mensah, Williams, Borthwick Jackson etc..
 
limerickcitykid said:
Callum Chambers was way more proven.
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I wouldn't say so. He had played more games than Oxford has for West Ham but he had still only played a handful of games for Southampton before Arsenal bought him up.
 
CM10 said:
I wouldn't say so. He had played more games than Oxford has for West Ham but he had still only played a handful of games for Southampton before Arsenal bought him up.
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He'd played over 20 times and was keeping Clyne on the bench for some of those games. He was also playing a higher level internationally. It isn't even close.
 
As far as I know he signed his scholarship with a guaranteed professional deal kicking in on his 17th birthday later this month. He has been captaining West Ham's u21s at 16 and they view him as the best prospect they've had since Rio so unless they were struggling financially to sell him for 8 million right now would be madness considering the new TV deal kicks in this summer and the tax on English players, especially high potential ones is only likely to increase.
 
Jammydodger7 said:
What's audacious is that there's no way they'd accept 8 million for him!
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Bizarre comment ! £8m for a 16 year old who's unproven must be one hell of a tempting offer for WHU. I doubt they will be able to resist that for a kid who has basically done nothing so far.
 
dogwithabone said:
Bizarre comment ! £8m for a 16 year old who's unproven must be one hell of a tempting offer for WHU. I doubt they will be able to resist that for a kid who has basically done nothing so far.
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No.They rate him very highly.The key point is he's just bloody 16, his value can easily escalate in the next few years.
 
dogwithabone said:
Bizarre comment ! £8m for a 16 year old who's unproven must be one hell of a tempting offer for WHU. I doubt they will be able to resist that for a kid who has basically done nothing so far.
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Didn't Arsenal pay £12 million for a 16 year old Theo Walcott nearly 10 years ago? When you factor in the inflation in the transfer market since then £8 million for Oxford would be nothing. Yes Walcott has played a bit more first team football but this kid has appeared in the Premier League.
 
A 16-year old Raheem Sterling cost about 5 million and that was almost 6 years ago.
 
limerickcitykid said:
TFM was just last year. I don't see how a couple senior performances boosts someones value by about 2000% Chris Smalling is an anomaly and was also about five years older. It doesn't make sense when you can buy over 10 of the top rated 16 year olds across Europe for the same price.
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I still don't get this "you can buy this and that foreign youngster/players for peanuts compared to this English player". Who the hell cares. You do know Man Utd is based in England. And if the player is good, break the bank for him if we deem he's worth it. People spout the same shit when we bought Rio. We should have gone for Cannavaro/Nesta/Thuram, cheaper and just as good if not better they said.
 
Wan said:
I still don't get this "you can buy this and that foreign youngster/players for peanuts compared to this English player". Who the hell cares. You do know Man Utd is based in England. And if the player is good, break the bank for him if we deem he's worth it. People spout the same shit when we bought Rio. We should have gone for Cannavaro/Nesta/Thuram, cheaper and just as good if not better they said.
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Its not really the same though because Rio was proven to be class. Yes I know United is based in England and I love it when British players play for United and have high hopes for the likes of Tuanzebe, CBJ, and Williams. The point is I don't think a 16 year old who has 1 start is worth 8m and we really don't have a need for him, especially when we have a few highly rated young CBs of our own.
 
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