Oxford To Play, Hopefully For More Than A40 Minute Cameo

Having trained with the senior squad all week West Ham starlet Reece Oxford, much coveted by Mourinho at Manchester United, Guardiola at Manchester City and not forgetting Conte at Chelsea, seems set to start the televised crunch match against Southampton at the London Stadium on Sunday. A big stadium needs big players to fill it out and make it intimidating for visiting teams, Oxford is a big time player, he may be young, but he has the aura of impending greatness! Of course it could all go wrong for the 17 year old England player, football is littered with players of great potential who have fallen by the way side, but young Reece has a certain charisma that raises him head and shoulders over most youngsters, that and a maturity that belies his age, Slaven Billic was brave enough to use him for the memorable away win over Arsenal at the Emirates last season, and it appears he has decided to stop 'wrapping oxford up in cotton wool' and unleash him in to the Barclays Premier League with all the piranha's and pitfalls he was trying to protect him from. Needs must, and West Ham need inspiration at the moment, and what better way than to bring 'one of our own' in to the fold? If he gets monstered by the opposition forwards he will learn, and to be honest he can't do much worse than those who have been playing recently! - Ed