Reece Oxford of England during the U17 Euro Elite Qualifying Round match between England and Norway at the Pirelli Stadium on March 21, 2015 in Burton upon Trent, England. (Photo by Clint Hughes/Getty Images)
One Premier League match for West Ham United and Reece Oxford is all over the news. At 16 years and 237 days, Oxford became the second youngest player to play in the Premier League. He’d have been the youngest ever had he been called from the substitute’s bench against Liverpool in January 2015.
One thing riding high on the news cycle is the fact that Oxford supports Arsenal – news that should curtail Hammers fans’ claims that, like Tottenham’s former Arsenal kit-wearer Harry Kane, Oxford is “one of our own”.
Of course, we all make mistakes in our youth and the 14-year-old Oxford’s tweets for the Gunners can be consigned to the time when he knew no better.
Nevertheless, two years ago, Arsenal supporting Oxford urged the Gunners to sign Mesut Ozil, which they did for £42.5million.
Oxford wrote on Twitter:
For **** sake Arsenal something always doesn’t go right hurry up and sign Ozil!!
Although he might have added: “So I can eventually mark him out of the game on my West Ham debut and laugh my nut off when we beat them 2-0.”
Of course, Oxford is not nearly so brash. Of that match he says:
It was an honour to play. I found out on Saturday night. I was speaking about Match of the Day and then I thought, ‘Tomorrow I’m going to be on it. I hope I get a win!’ Last season I was on the bench a few times, so I was expecting to be in and around the first team, but not starting against Arsenal.
The manager just said to sit and break up play and talk to my team-mates. Keep it simple. Don’t try too much. It was good. I enjoyed it. We hadn’t won at Arsenal in I don’t know how many years. So for me and the team it was good.
It wasn’t his first match for the West Ham first XI. Oxford played in the Hammers’ unsuccessful Europa League qualifying campaign:
That helped me a lot. It’s a great youth set-up at West Ham. They like to push the players and there are a lot coming through.
He might have been an emerging talent at Spurs. Born in Edmonton, Oxford represented his local club at under-13 level:
I was at Tottenham for a while but they didn’t want me. I don’t know what happened, I was a striker back then. I decided West Ham was the right option.
‘Back then’? He’s only 16 now. He’s never known a world without the £2 coin, for crying out loud!