West Ham attacker Marcus Browne has completed a temporary move to Oxford United.
The 20-year-old joins the U’s on a season-long loan deal from the Hammers, with Oxford, who are currently in League One, confirming the transfer via their official Twitter account.
✍️ | We are delighted to announce that @MarcusBrowne14 has agreed to join the club on a season long loan #oufc https://t.co/LuIqSECunh
— Oxford United FC (@OUFCOfficial) July 24, 2018
The attacking midfielder, who also operates as a centre forward had a spell on loan at Wigan Athletic during the second half of the season back in 2017, but managed to make a single appearance for the Latics – the same amount as he has for West Ham’s first team.
OPINION
With all of West Ham’s recent signings, it looks like their business may be coming to an end, which is why players like Browne will now be able to secure loan moves elsewhere as they don’t now need them for first-team cover. So far this summer, the Hammers have signed high-quality players like Jack Wilshere, Andriy Yarmolenko, Ryan Fredericks, Felipe Anderson, Issa Diop, Lukasz Fabianski and Fabian Balbuena. While this is great news for the club’s fans in the immediate future, it’s not so good for the long-term prospects of some of their best young players. Signing expensive foreign players is what the club needed to do to improve but that has a detrimental effect on the development of their young English talent, which is why midfielders like Browne need to leave to get regular football.
