David Moyes is looking forward to working with Reece Oxford after the teenager was recalled from his loan spell with German club Borussia Monchengladbach.
The youngster, who turned 19 a fortnight ago, will return to training with West Ham United on New Year’s Eve.
And manager Moyes, who oversaw the development of the likes of future England internationals Wayne Rooney, Leon Osman and Ross Barkley during his successful time in charge at Everton, is relishing the opportunity to see what Oxford can do.
“We put Leon on loan to Carlisle and then he went to Derby County on loan, then we brought him back and he was never out the team after that,” the Hammers boss recalled, when asked about Oxford. “We put Ross Barkley out on loan, too.
“I think you do put young players out on loan because some of them are developing and are maybe growing out of youth football and they need to find somewhere else.
“For a centre-half like Reece, I think young centre-halves is the hardest position to put in the team. It’s actually easier to put a young goalkeeper in the team than a young centre-half. I can totally understand why Reece went out on loan.”
Oxford became West Ham’s youngest-ever player when he debuted against Lusitans of Andorra in the UEFA Europa League in July 2015, aged 16 years and 198 days.
During his loan spell, he was an unused substitute in 14 of Monchengladbach’s opening 15 Bundesliga matches, making his debut as a late replacement at Hoffenheim in late October.
He started for the first time at Freiburg at right-back, before appearing in a home win over Hamburg and German Cup defeat by Bayer Leverkusen in the club’s final game before Christmas.
Now, the Hammers have recalled Oxford and he will have a chance to impress Moyes and his staff as West Ham seek to steer clear of the Premier League’s bottom three.
“It’s probably taken him a little bit of time to settle [in Germany], just like it would for any young player. But we’ve got him back and we’ll have a look at him. A lot of people have spoken really well about him, so we’ll see how he does over the coming months.
“He wasn’t playing regularly enough. He’s just really got into the team for the last couple of games and I don’t think there’s any guarantee that he would go back in the team [after the winter break] as there was a little to do with injuries.
“I’ll have no qualms about playing him at all, but I can only see what I see. Until I get a chance to see him I’m not able to make a full judgement on him. He’s due to start training with us on Sunday.”