Welcome to the latest series from everyone’s favorite, Brace The Hammer. Over 20 writers ranked 32 youth players (21 and under) for West Ham United. We ranked them by assigning each player a max of 20 points, down to 1. The top 15 averages made our list.

Every day, leading up to the start of the season, we will be bringing to you our top fifteen youth academy prospects for West Ham United. In the number 3 spot we have Reece Oxford.

Origins

Reece Oxford joined the West Ham academy with the U13’s after being released by the Tottenham youth academy in 2011. After a strong showing in the academy, he signed his first professional contract with the club in 2015.

Academy Play

After he signed his first professional contract, he was awarded with the Dylan Tombides academy player of the year in the 2014-2015 season. The next season he made his Premier League debut against Arsenal. At 16 years old, he became the youngest West Ham player to start a Premier League match. It was a start he won’t forget any time soon.

With West Ham only having 2 days in between their Europa League fixture, they were forced to start the 16 year old against his boyhood club, and their fantastic attacking midfielder Mesut Ozil. A man that Reece evidently knew of before the match.

It seemed only fitting that Reece would completely shut down the man he desperately wanted Arsenal to sign.

Maybe he knew he would do this all along.....

Future

Reece has a very bright future at this club, with many big clubs already looking in his direction, but Reece signed a new contract last season to stay with the Hammers for the future. This season he is playing on loan at Borussia Monchengladbach, or A German Team, which is a move I don’t entirely understand. Monchengladbach are a good German side, and if he can play for their first team then he’d be able to play for our first team. But if he gets lots of first team time that’ll be great for his development and great for the future of West Ham United.