Bilic tells Staam he wishes Oxford hadn’t joined Reading

Slaven Bilic has told Reading boss Jaap Stam he wishes he’d never sent the  Hammers most highly regarded prospect Reece Oxford to Reading.

The Royals boss threw doubts over the Irons training ground methods by implication when claiming the teenager had been surprised by the intensity of the Championship club’s regime in that area.

Bilic responded by claiming it was simply because the boy hadn’t been fit after a long injury problem but has now taken the issue further.

Reece has had a mere  17 minutes of action since joining in  January and Staam may have been using the “intensity ” argument as a reason for that.

Now though, Bilic has said: “We are training very intensely here. I expected him to play more and there were other Championship clubs wanted him. I wish he had gone to one of them.”

Both Nottingham Forest and Rangers had shown an interest in taking him before the youngster was allowed to join the Royals.