OPINION
West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini appeared to suggest that no one was heading for the exit door at the club as he was now happy with his current squad.
While normally players would be thrilled at the prospect of their club wanting to keep them, surely Reece Oxford is now a little worried about his future to say the least.
“When we built up a squad we knew that some players had to go out, especially young players who need to play. They knew from the beginning they would go out on loan,” stated Pellegrini on Thursday in his press conference, as quoted by EuroSport.
“The squad is the squad I want for the season. I don’t think any other players are going out at the moment.”
The experienced manager’s comments appeared to shut the exit door at the London Stadium and imply that everyone currently at the club would be staying.
With Oxford still on the club’s book, earning an impressive £20,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac), he must be sweating over his immediate future.
The 19-year-old centre-back looked very likely to be heading for the exit door this summer as it was previously reported by Sky Sports that the Hammers were looking to permanently bin the defender for a fee of £10million.
Considering that Oxford spent the majority of his 2017/18 campaign on loan and when he did feature for the Hammers he was disappointing to say the least, it was very easy to believe that the Premier League side were ready to wave goodbye.
The 19-year-old defender is at a very pivotal stage of his career as in order to get better, he needs to regularly be playing for a side.
Given that the Hammers welcomed several new defenders this summer and that they were reportedly willing to cash-in on Oxford then he’ll hardly get a kick at the ball at the London Stadium.
Therefore Pellegrini’s update must have Oxford sweating about his future as he can’t afford to sit around and be emergency cover until January as it will not do his career any favours.
