West Ham United have announced this afternoon that Reece Oxfor’s days at the club have finally come to a close with the player departing the London Stadium for Bundesliga outfit Augsburg.
And although the transfer fee remains undisclosed ClaretandHugh understands that it amounted to as little as €2.3 million which, to make the deal happen, was swallowed in fees to the agents and playerwho was forced totake a wage cut with his new club.
However, it means the Irons will save £20k a week – or nearly £2 million over what would have been the final two years of his deal – off the wage bill over the next two years.
Oxford had walked away from a move to the German outfit at the end of his loan spell last season because he was unready to sign without a relegation clause being inserted into the deal.
It’s not clear whether he got what he wanted second time around but it means that the 20 year old has finally brought his eight year association with the Hammers to an end.
He would, however, appear to have a stiff task ahead of him nailing down a permanent place in the Augsburg side given that he he made just eight appearances for the Bundesliga outfit in the second half of the season.
The move brings the 20-year-old’s eight-year stay in east London to an end by returning to the club where he spent the second half of last season on loan, making eight appearances.
He had made history at the Hammers when in 2015 he became West Ham’s youngest-ever first-team player when Slaven Bilic handed him a debut in the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round first leg win over Lusitanos of Andorra in July 2015, aged 16 years and 198 days.
ClaretandHugh: The Hammers have been doing everything they can to move Oxford on for well over 18 months and the heady talk of interest from Manchester United, City and Arsenal which surrounded him for a while shows how wrong the media often gets it. In the end it appears he was left with just the one option and it will be a long way back from last season’s loan spell, with the club who finished 15th in the Bundesliga, to the heights for the boy who once appeared to have the world at his feet. Quite where it all started to go wrong for him at West Ham is hard to pinpoint but his star clearly started to dim at the same time as Declan Rice’s began to shine. After eight years as a Hammer with things looking so bright for him at one stage, it’s sad to see him disappear to a club which appears to have few prospects of achieving a great deal and the fee of £2.3 million s a pitiful return on a player who was at one stage being discussed in £20-£30m terms. However, his time with us is over and we at CandH wish him all the best for the future.
Far and away above the new signings, the BEST thing that we have done this summer, is the clear out. Getting all those bit part and no chance players out can no doubt clear the decks for more youths, and the odd high profile signing to come through in the future.
Hugh this is shocking business and he is not the only one we sold on the cheap ! Why when we need funds to sort out our defence , doesn’t make sense. We clearly need a defender / CDM to sort out our leaky defence. Should be aiming to make funds to put towards any potential signing on top of the £5 million . We need Maripan I think , don’t know if you agree , I’m bemused. ⚒
Nobody wants him Mark. They basically paid him and the agents in order to get rid of him. They have been at it for two years and there have only been loans. Honesly, no one wants him really
Thanks Hugh , I guess if that’s the case than it had to happen , shame we didn’t make a bit in him .
Bin a bit of a berk to himself Mark
Shame really if he could have fit his head straight he could have had an outstanding career.
Yet again the club ‘sell’ a player for next to nothing or actually pay the players to leave.. wth is going on at our club, when was the last time we got a decent amount for one of our players?
DG is meant to be a good business man, but we seem to get mugged off every time. Who the hell gave Oxford a £20k a week deal? Byram sold £750k, paying £10m Hugill & then having to pay the muppet to go & play at QPR, Payet, Arnie, the list is endless. Clubs must rub their hands together when our name pops up.
The club have wasted £10m’s on mind bogglingly bad deals. The transfer pot will never get bigger if we can’t be more savy with the deals we do make.
How do you sell a player no one wants. I have an old tele without a remote. Can’t sell it 🙂
Simple.. don’t buy Amstrad in the first place 😉
‘Who the hell gave Oxford £20k a week’, at 16 he played in the first team was an outstanding prospect and other teams were apparently sniffing around. To keep him at the club 20k a week and a new contract was the deal, if he’d left then the owners would have been slaughtered, unfortunately it didn’t work out, dammed if they do dammed if they don’t. The alternative to not selling would be to continue paying his wages whilst he gets no where near the 1st team and ends his contract, not good business
Cherno Samba didn’t turn out to be all that great either. It happens.
There’s probably no such thing as selling ‘on the cheap’ if absolutely nobody wants the product. I don’t mind if a youth player move on for a relatively small fee so long as we’re smart enough to put some sort of sell clause in the deal.
Not sure what happened with him as he seemed to have such a bright future, but obviously something happened behind the scenes as he is basically paid to leave.
Attitude mate
Hugh, is there a sell on % clause?
It would only be worth about two bob Bish 🙂
Hugh, we don’t know that? A sell on % fee on profit is not unheard of in the footy game. Any idea / can you ask source if we have any such clauses? Recognising we’ve been trying to get rid but for a previously hailed 20 yr old I would expect some sort of future compensation potential
Is that a yes? On the very outside chance that he does fulfill his potential and gets sold for big money, I hope we stand to benefit from it.
I just wish I knew what goes on behind the scenes at the club. What is the actual truth as to why a player held in such high esteem ,as Oxford was, is now leaving the club on such bad terms ? Why has his star fallen so far over the last 3 years ? It all seems very mysterious to me.