Daily WHUFC News - 29th December 2017

Academy offer Scholarship deals to U16s
WHUFC.com

West Ham United's Academy of Football are delighted to announce the signing-on of nine players on full-time Scholarship deals.A change in Premier League rules meant that the date by which clubs had to offer U16 players a Scholarship contract had this year been brought forward to 1 January where in previous years, clubs would not have to submit their lists until later in the month. This campaign, players who have signed their Scholarship deals are: Keenan Appiah-Forson (central-midfield), Harrison Ashby (full-back/centre-back), Samuel Caiger (full-back/central-midfield), Daniel Chesters (central-midfield), Jake Giddings (central-midfield), William Greenidge (full-back/centre-back, pictured (right)), Samuel Nsumbu (centre-back), Joshua Okotcha (centre-back, pictured (left)) and Lennon Peake (winger).
Academy Director Terry Westley was delighted to get the boys signed on and believes there could be a number of Hammers stars for the future within the group.
He said: "I'd like to offer many congratulations to the all the boys as they take another exciting step on their career pathway. "Thanks also goes to their families for their unerring support in helping them reach this stage. "We look forward to welcoming these nine players into the world of professional football in July 2018 but before then, we as of them that they work hard to achieve their GCSEs and aspire to leave school knowing they have performed to their highest level. "There are a number of very talented players at the Academy in the younger age-groups and I wish them all success as they progress to this next stage."

A number of the U16s have already begun to make their mark on the older age-groups at the Academy.

Will Greenidge and Josh Okotcha broke into the U18 squad earlier this campaign and their impressive performances for Steve Potts and Mark Phillips' side later earned them U23 appearances in the Premier League International Cup against Benfica. Meanwhile, Daniel Chesters, Keenan Appiah-Forson, Sam Caiger and, most recently, Harrison Ashby all broke into the U18 side in the second half of 2017.

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Conor Coventry letting his feet do the talking
WHUFC.com

You do not have to be loud, outgoing and vocal to be a leader on the football pitch. West Ham United's U23 midfielder Conor Coventry is proving just that. Still just 17, the teenager skippered the side for first time when Benfica visited in the Premier League International Cup in November. And the youngster is showing everybody that his style is to let his feet do the talking. "I wouldn't say it's necessarily me being vocal which is how I lead," the Republic of Ireland youth international explained. "I am trying to get better at that, of course, but I think I lead by actions and by getting on the ball and I captained Ireland's U18s a few weeks ago as well. I think I am doing well in that at the moment."

Coventry is being modest. An U18 regular last campaign, he made just a handful of appearances for the U23s and looked set for another season hoping to break into the starting XI this term. But due to a combination of his impressive pre-season and injuries to teammates, Terry Westley selected the midfielder for the campaign's opener against Everton and he has not looked back since. Twelve appearances later, he is most certainly a regular in the side, although his ambitions are not limited to just that. "I've been happy with how the season has gone so far, definitely. The aim was always to try and get into the U23s, something I've probably done now, and I've probably done it quicker than I expected and played more games than I thought I would. "I'm happy and hopefully things can continue and I can keep going the way I am. "I want to keep starting, play the rest of the games and become one of the key players in the U23 squad. Those are the aims for the rest of the season. "Maybe if I'm lucky, I want to have a focus on being more involved with the first team as the season goes on, but my main focus of course is on the U23s."

Since first-team manager David Moyes arrived, the likes of Declan Rice, Ben Johnson, Nathan Trott, Domingos Quina, Sead Haksabanovic and Moses Makasi have all been included in senior squads. And to see his teammates in such positions gives Coventry hope that a call-up to the West Ham first team is not just a distant dream. "I think since the gaffer got to the Club, everyone can see there's a chance. He'll put you on the bench if he believes in you, so everyone is working hard and hopefully more can get their chances. "Dec's played a lot, and the challenge for everyone now is to be good enough; if you are, it looks as though you'll get that opportunity. "It's not about 'Are you old enough?' It's about 'Are you good enough?' That's encouraging for all of us to see, of course."

Coventry is already proud of his season so far but more moments like that against Benfica will only make him happier. "It was a bit unexpected when I got the armband, to be fair, but it was a great moment for me. One or two of the more senior ones were missing so it was nice to get the armband and step up to do that. I want to step up more often and hopefully I get the chance to."

And if he continues to let his feet do the talking, he certainly will.

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Adrian: We have to defend as a team against West Brom
WHUFC.com

Adrian says West Ham United have to 'defend as a team' when they face West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday evening. The Hammers conceded three goals from set plays in drawing 3-3 at AFC Bournemouth on Boxing Day, where Callum Wilson's controversial late equaliser denied them three valuable points. And goalkeeper Adrian, who kept his side in the game with a series of important saves with West Ham trailing 1-2 before Marko Arnautovic's double turned the game in their favour, was frustrated by the Hammers' inability to turn their own penalty area into a fortress, as they had done in recent meetings with Chelsea, Arsenal and Stoke City. "We worked so hard together to come back and get the result, but we can't be happy because we conceded three goals," he told whufc.com. "We need to defend much better and deal with the ball in the air much better. We have to defend as a team. "We now have a week to rest, to train hard and recover our bodies and minds to be 100 per cent to face West Brom."

Adrian himself was heavily involved in a game played in truly horrible weather conditions at the Vitality Stadium, making seven saves to keep the Cherries at bay.
Five of those stops came with West Ham trailing 1-2 in the second half, setting the stage for Arnautovic. "It was the moment of the game. If they had scored the third one, I think it would have probably killed the game and we would have had no chance to come back. "I was very busy with some saves to try to help the team and at the end we scored the third one and thought we had got a massive three points, but in the end we had to settle for only one. "It was very hard because the pitch there is small, every ball in the air is dangerous for the goalkeeper and defenders and it was very windy but, at the end of the day, we are professionals and the climate is for both teams, so we had to cope with this."

No interview about the Boxing Day fixture could end without discussion of Bournemouth's 91st-minute leveller, which was scored by Wilson, despite the striker appearing to be both offside and divert the ball into the net with his right arm. Adrian, unsurprisingly, was unhappy with referee Bobby Madley's decision to award the goal. "To be fair, we were a bit disappointed because we had three points in the last minute and then we had the decision from the referee. I don't know why he changed the decision of the assistant because I think it was a bit offside and also handball, and he also interfered on my way to the ball. "I'm very disappointed with this, but we got a point and, at the end of the day, we didn't lose but it's not enough."

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West Ham's Reece Oxford set for RB Leipzig move
By Simon Stone
BBC Sport

West Ham defender Reece Oxford could complete a surprise move to Bundesliga side RB Leipzig next month. Oxford, 19, has been on loan at Borussia Monchengladbach and has made three league appearances this season. However, RB Leipzig are optimistic of a deal being agreed for an initial 9m Euros (£8m), with the fee potentially rising to 19m (£16.88m) with add ons. West Ham would have to recall the England Under-20 international from Monchengladbach before doing the deal. Leipzig tried to buy Oxford in 2016 but could not agree a fee with the Hammers. Oxford became West Ham's youngest ever player when he made his debut as a 16-year-old in a Europa League qualifying tie against Andorran side Lusitanos in July 2015. New Hammers boss David Moyes had agreed to let Oxford leave on a permanent basis, although it was anticipated he would remain at Monchengladbach. Leipzig were second in the table heading into December but have failed to win any of their last four matches and have slipped to fifth. They have been drawn against Napoli in the last 32 of the Europa League.

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EXWHUEMPLOYEE EXCLUSIVE: "OXFORD IS BEING RECALLED TO PLAY FOR US!"
AUTHOR: EXWHUEMPLOYEE. PUBLISHED: 28 DECEMBER 2017 AT 5:48PM
TheWestHamWay.co.uk

So the transfer rumour season is already in full force and we haven't reached January yet! The news broke this morning that Reece Oxford was due to make his loan move permanent at Borussia Mönchengladbach. I contacted one of my sources with that exact question and was told that they had received no offer for him and it was "news to them" despite being reported by a leading German newspaper "The Bild"

No sooner had I dismissed this rumour then the next one broke from the BBC that he was in fact off to Red Bull Liepzig for an initial £6m rising to around £17m. Now knowing how some of my sources simply answer the question in front of them and do not elaborate at times, I wanted to check that the "No offer received" applied to all clubs rather than just Monchengladbach. The reply I received was "It is very unlikely that Oxford will leave, every player has a price but we are recalling him to play for us". Now of course should Leipzig with all their financial clout come in and offer a huge sum, it would be hard to say no for a player who has yet to really show his potential at the club. This is unlikely to happen though and the club wish to see him feature for our first team now.

Oxford will never be far from the transfer rumours though because his agent is Adi Ward, who is the same agent for Sterling and Berahino, often likes to instigate moves for his players. The same agent's demands saw Quina's loan move to Sheffield United break down in the summer due to furthering his money requests as the deal approached completion. The same agent successfully negotiated a £20k a week deal for Oxford to tie him down to the club as well.

Oxford will offer options in midfield, defence and right back when he returns and it will be exciting to see how he and the talented Declan Rice go on to challenge for regular first team spots as the season continues. A centre back partnership of Rice and Oxford could be one that we rely on for many years to come.

Following my earlier tweet it appears that all the main newspapers and other West Ham websites are now "hearing the same thing" and saying that Oxford is due back to play for us.

It is likely however that Reece Burke's days at the club are numbered as the club think about recalling him from Bolton to move him on again perhaps on a permanent deal this time.

It is expected that Diafra Sakho's move from the club will be confirmed in the next week and this could free up a forward option. There is talk that Schurrle of Dortmund could be targeted for a loan move because he is out of favour there and wants to get in the German national team for the World Cup. We made a move for him in the summer which was close to completion but didn't quite get over the line. Ironically we may approach Gladback for some of their players too as well as having Sturridge, Giroud and Dembele of Celtic as possible replacements.

The number one position for Moyes to strengthen is central midfield. Now that Wilshire has confirmed he wishes to stay at Arsenal, N'Zonzi from Sevilla is the number one target although we face a lot of competition. All of these deals were covered on our radio show. I spoke of Oxford's recall last night and did a large section on transfers.

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MICHAIL ANTONIO: MA GONE MIA
AUTHOR: EXWHUEMPLOYEE. PUBLISHED: 28 DECEMBER 2017 AT 8:35PM
TheWestHamWay.co.uk
Written by @emedser for her blog https://betterthanzidane.wordpress.com

Michail Antonio where do I start! Once one of the stand out players at West Ham United now seems disjointed and leaves me frustrated with his decision making. He enjoyed a stellar first couple of seasons with the Hammers but seems to have fallen off this season. Could it be due to a long list of injuries mounting up for the Englishman or is it just his heart isn't in it anymore or more simply is he just not cut out for it.

2015/16 Season
The Wandsworth native signed for West Ham United on the 1st of September 2015 for £7 million on a 4 year contract with the option of a further 2 years. Not long after on the 19th September he made his debut in the 60th minute taking over from Victor Moses in the 2-1 victory over Manchester City. He was then not used again until 29th November coming on as a subsititue in the 1-1 draw against West Brom. After this Antonio started every remaining Premier League match for the Hammers. He opened his scoring account for West Ham in the 2-1 victory over Southampton on 28th December, following on from this he managed to bag goals against Liverpool, Aston Villa, Sunderland, Spurs, Everton and Manchester United. With Sam Byram out injured much to his dismay Michail was then utilised as a right back toward the end of the campaign. He just lost out on the Hammer of the year award coming runner up to the infamous Dimitri Payet.

2016/17 Season
Antonio started the season off with a bang scoring the first ever Premier League goal at the London Stadium in West Ham's 1-0 victory over AFC Bournemouth on 21st August 2016. In the next 3 Premier League matches against Manchester City, Watford and West Brom, impressively Antonio managed to grab 4 more goals. His incredible performances led to his first England call up for fixtures against Slovakia and Spain, however Michail did not get to play. Back to scoring ways he netted again against Spurs, Liverpool and Swansea and registered 3 more assists in the 3-0 win over Crystal Palace at the London Stadium. Antonio scored his final Premier League goal of the season away at Bournemouth on 21st March 2017, missing the last few games of the season due to a hamstring injury. The season ended with Antonio signing a new long term contract and the Londoner winning the Hammer of the year accolade.

2017/18 Season
This season Antonio has seemed a shell of the player he had been in the previous 2 seasons he has spent at West Ham United. He seems disinterested, careless and has shown a distinct lack of effort. After the 3-2 loss at Newcastle even manager David Moyes seemed exsaspered saying,

'He's an important player for us. We said at half-time we'd have to do something about it but he never gave us anything we could see would be helping us."

I appreciate that he has been littered with injuries at the end of 2016/17 season he missed the final 6 games due to a hamstring problem having also had to withdraw from the England squad. Then came the groin injury that Michail sustained at the start of the 2017/18 season coming off against Spurs. Then there was a rib injury and now a calf injury, it seems never ending! Since that hamstring problem he never seems to really have got back that spark we saw during the first couple seasons he enjoyed with the Hammers.

He was also left frustrated at being played in an unnatural position, right back. He was played in this position for much of the 2016/17 season but that still did not stop him getting 9 goals and 5 assists in all competitions. This season however he has not been played at right back due to the signing of Zabaleta from Manchester City and in my opinion has been half the player he was in the season he played right back so I don't think its a question of positioning.

Having said all this his end at Nottingham Forest, his previous club, was much similar to what we are experiencing now with Michail at West Ham United. When Antonio joined Forest in August 2014 for a small fee of £1.5 million he hit the ground running! In his first 5 league matches he bagged 3 goals and 3 assists and ended up starting every league match in his opening season with Forest, scoring 14 goals and being named player of the season in May 2015. After that things seemed to go downhill for Antonio as he was left out of Forest's Championship match against Charlton Athletic on 19th August 2015, with his then manager Dougie Freedman stating that the winger was not "in the right frame of mind" to play. Consequently on 26th August West Ham joined the bidding for Antonio along with West Bromwich Albion. He opted to sign for the Hammers and put pen to paper on 1st September 2015. This is story that should sound all too familiar to West Ham fans as it sounds almost identical to the situation they find themselves in with Antonio at the moment. His frame of mind seems elsewhere and whether this is due to his mountain of injuries or something else I just cannot say.

I truly hope that this can be resolved as at the moment we need everybody on board and playing for the team, all hands on deck! When Antonio has recovered I hope to see some renewed energy and enthusiasm and hopefully some goals.

What is your opinion? Can and should Antonio be doing better? Does he have the ability? Are injuries playing a part? Is his heart still in it? Does he still hold a grudge due to being played out of position? How can he turn it around? Will he improve? Let me know your thoughts 🙂

Thanks for reading.

COYI

Em x

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WEST HAM'S NEXT LEVEL – WHY AREN'T WE THERE? HOW WE CAN ACHIEVE IT?
AUTHOR: EXWHUEMPLOYEE. PUBLISHED: 28 DECEMBER 2017 AT 9:23PM
TheWestHamWay.co.uk
Written by Harry Rawlings @HarryRawlings1

I, like most fans, was very wary of our move away from Upton Park, but got behind it as we were sold by the board that it would take us to 'the next level' getting 'champions league football in 5 years' and all the other unfulfilled promises/lies. A season and a half into it, we are in a relegation battle and have only gone backwards from the last season at Upton Park. In this article I want to explain what I think is going wrong, and what needs to change in order for us to get there in the future.

It seems to me that we are a very reactive club, always fixing problems, filling in holes and papering over the cracks. Our lack of forward planning is laughable to me and we will never progress if we are constantly putting out fires. First of all, the London Stadium move epitomises this. If they had planned the move properly in the first place, then they would not constantly be having to resolve issues now, for examples poor stewarding, segregation issues and distance from the pitch. On the footballing side of things, we had a defensive and what some fans would say, 'boring period' under Allardyce. Then when the fans weren't happy, and the board wanted a manager with more of an attacking strategy, we appointed Bilic. This worked well initially but then we started conceding too many goals and he eventually lost his job. Now we have made a safe move with Moyes, whose first job has been to sort our defence out. But due to his six-month break clause, this leaves the fans wondering what will happen next. This shows another quick fix decision being made by the club without any long term goal in mind other than avoiding relegation.

Another reactive move seen by the club, has been through its recruitment policy. When moving into the new stadium we bought over 10 players in, most of them were young and had not played in the league e.g. Masuaku, Tore, Fernandez, Calleri and Martinez. It was a tough season to join, given it was the first season at a new stadium and expectations were high, and most of them did not work out, perhaps they were not given enough chances, but without going into specifics, the club thought this policy failed. As a result of this, they altogether changed their transfer policy, if we can even call it that, more like changed their mind, and thought experienced players who had played in the league is who they should recruit. So, Snodgrass and Fonte came in January, followed by experienced pros such as Hart, Zabaleta, Arnie and Hernandez in the summer. Now, without going in to detail about each player and whether they were good signings or not, the board have gone from one extreme of buying lots of cheaper, younger inexperienced players to a selective few of older experienced premier league players on huge wages. Where is the continuity? What plan is that following? There seems to be none at all and shows a complete lack of a footballing philosophy.

More evidence towards the club's lack of forward thinking, is their choices to buy good, established players, without thinking about how they could fit into our current team. For example, it was quite apparent that we needed a striker and Javier Hernandez is one of the best finishers in world football. But for him to thrive you need to play a style he is suited to and give him opportunities in the box so that he can finish. So what is the point in playing him when we are still lumping balls up to Carroll or playing him as a left winger? Ayew is another example of a good player, but it is hard to see where he fits into our team, and where his permanent role should be.

Now, it's right to discuss managing styles, and the right structure for our club to adopt to secure a positive future. Fergie was a manager that controlled every aspect of the football club, him along with Wenger are the old school type of managers who kept complete control over club decisions. When Fergie left, and the club had a succession of managers who also had full control of the football club, each one left a team of a mish mash of players from several managers ideologies. When you look at Palace who had a squad built mainly by Allardyce on big, quick and physical players who were used to a direct style of football who then made wholesale changes trying to adopt a total football approach they failed miserably and sacked the manager.

At Southampton, in comparison to the previous examples, their technical director Les Reed sets a precedent of scouting and developing youth players. They are given chances in the first team and set a style of football which they want to play. Even though they have a high turnover of managers, when a new manager does come in there isn't massive changes in terms of player recruitment and how the team plays due to the solid philosophy engrained in the club which is easy for new managers to continue. They have consistently finished in the top 10 and if it wasn't for the owners selling their best players they would without doubt be a top club knocking on the door of the Champions League.

Looking at our set up, it appears there is a mix of the manager, Tony Henry and David Sullivan controlling footballing decisions. With 3 people having an input it seems like there will be a lot of conflict and unaccountability for when things go wrong. Following this model, I can't see us finishing any higher than 8th at absolute best, with relegation as a more realistic option than finishing in the top 10.

The whole board in vs board out argument is for another day, but the fact is they are here to stay for the foreseeable future and we must find the best way of working with them. No matter what you think of David Sullivan, he is a very successful businessman and owns the club he supports. But no matter how much he loves West Ham and wants us to do well, he is not a football expert and quite clearly follows no solid philosophy or plan. I think he has way too much say on the footballing aspect of the club and needs to solely focus on the negotiations and the daily running of the football club, on the business side of things, for our successful future.

My first memories of watching West Ham as a little kid were seeing Joe Cole, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Glen Johnson gracing the pitch. Since then it has been pretty appalling other than Noble and Tomkins. I would love to see us appoint a technical director who would invest heavily in youth and try to get back to this era. For this to happen, David Sullivan would have to step aside from these current duties and give the director a remit to make our academy great again and set a president for the certain style of football they want… the West Ham way?

The best example of this has been at RB Leipzig. They had a vision of creating a football team to match their brand of energy drink. Very energetic, fast and exciting to watch. They then hired Ralph Rangnick as the sporting director. Working from these principles, he hired a manager to best achieve these goals – Ralph Hasenhüttl. They then had a specific transfer policy of only signing players from 17-23 so they can be moulded into the philosophy of the club and have the legs for the furious tempo they like to play at. After only being formed in 2009, they were promoted into the Bundesliga last season and came second behind Bayern Munich. They subsequently qualified for the Champions League which is an unbelievable achievement and shows what can be done through thorough planning and commitment to an objective, instead of being the very backwards and reactive club we are now. To reemphasise my point, Monaco are another team that have done a similar thing in France and won their league. They have an excellent scouting network set up and a manager who is willing to give them game time and develop them into world class players such as Mendy, Bernardo Silva, Mbappe and Lemar.

Ultimately, we are never going to have the money to buy the best players and compete with the big clubs, so the way I see it, for us to get to this next level, we must buy young prospects and develop them into great players. We will then keep them on because they want to play for us and buy into the vision that needs to be set by a passionate sporting/football/technical director.

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Huddersfield allocation sold out
KUMB.com
Filed: Thursday, 28th December 2017
By: Staff Writer

West Ham have sold out their entire opening allocation of tickets for the club's first trip to Huddersfield in 20 years. The last occasion on which the two sides met at Town's McAlpine Stadium (as it was then known) came in a 1997 Coca Cola Cup second round, first leg tie which the Terriers won 1-0 thanks to a late winner from lifelong Hammers fan Alex Dyer. And as a result all 2,000+ tickets for the 13 January match have gone like hot cakes, with the initial 90 per cent made available all gone to season ticket holders. The remaining 10 per cent of tickets, around 234 in total, are being held for season ticket holders with insufficient points to enter the initial ballot and claret members. These go on sale from 11am tomorrow morning (Friday) priced £30 for adults, £20 for over 60s and £15 for under 18s.

Huddersfield Town v West Ham Utd: head-to-head

West Ham Utd: 11 wins (biggest win 4-0, January 1954)
Huddersfield: 22 wins (biggest win 6-2, February 1957)
Draws: 7

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Oxford set for £17million switch?
KUMB.com
Filed: Thursday, 28th December 2017
By: Staff Writer

Teenage defender Reece Oxford is set to join RB Leipzig on a permanent basis, according to reports from Germany. The 19-year-old is currently on a season-long loan at Borussia Monchengladbach, for whom he has made three appearances thus far this season. However a report in respected German daily Bild today claims that Oxford's loan is set to be cut short so that West Ham may sell him to Monchengladbach's Bundesliga rivals Leipzig, who are said to have agreed a £17million deal. The German club saw a £10million bid for the Edmonton-born defender rejected in July 2016 - at the same time Manchester City had a £15million offer rejected. However another report from Germany insists that Gladbach are also seeking to make Oxford's loan permanent, with sporting director Max Eberl telling bundesliga.com that talks have already begun. "We want to keep hold of him after the winter," he said. "We have inquired about the possibilities of a purchase and exploratory talks are underway. Good Bundesliga players are always of interest for us."

West Ham, who are yet to comment on the speculation, have consistently denied previous reports linking Oxford - one of the most highly-rated youngsters to emerge via the club's Academy in recent seasons - with a move away from the club. And further speculation suggests that the Hammers intend to retain the services of Oxford, and could recall him to the club as early as next month.

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Hurry up Davey, come on
KUMB.com
Filed: Thursday, 28th December 2017
By: Staff Writer

David Moyes says he is looking to conduct his January business as early as possible in order to give West Ham the best chance of escaping the drop zone. The Hammers fell back to 17th in the Premier League as a result of the defeat against Newcastle and draw at Bournemouth over Christmas, leaving Moyes in no doubt that fresh faces are urgently required. And the recently-appointed manager hopes to start bringing players in as soon as he possibly can - with the midfield especially set for an overhaul. "I'm in a hurry," he told whufc.com. "I have to be in a hurry because I cannot wait three or four months to see how you do. Ideally I'd have had six or seven pre-season games to understand what they're like, but I've not. "Every player has shown great desire and is committed in training, but I think we're short in some areas and overloaded in others. "For example, we've got lots of forwards but we're really short of midfield players. We've got quite a few who are comfortable playing on the left, but not so many who can play on the right so we've got an imbalanced squad. "We've got a couple of forwards in form at the minute and people we can bring on and use, so I think we've got a threat, but were definitely lacking in some areas."

Moyes has been in charge of West Ham for 10 matches since succeeding Slaven Bilic at the start of November, winning two, drawing three and losing five games.

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West Ham set to recall Reece Oxford from Monchengladbach amid RB Leipzig interest
By Sky Sports News
Last Updated: 28/12/17 7:19pm
SSN

West Ham United are expected to recall Reece Oxford from his loan at Borussia Monchengladbach amid interest from fellow Bundesliga club RB Leipzig. A senior Hammers source has told Sky Sports News that the midfielder will "probably" return in January despite Monchengladbach wanting to sign the defender on a permanent deal worth £5.5m. Leipzig, who were interested in signing Oxford in 2016 when he was just 17 years old, are also keen on signing him next month but they have not yet made a formal offer. Oxford has played only four times for Monchengladbach this season but they like what they have seen and expect the 19-year-old to develop into a top player. West Ham value Oxford highly too and would not let him leave unless they received an exceptional offer. The England U20 international, who signed a new West Ham contract last year that tied him to the club until 2021, joined Monchengladbach on a season-long loan on June 21.

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Stoke, West Brom, West Ham, Newcastle keen on Danny Ings loan from Liverpool
By Rob Dorsett and Bryan Swanson
Last Updated: 28/12/17 7:55pm
SSN

Stoke are interested in taking Liverpool striker Danny Ings on loan but are likely to face competition from Newcastle, West Ham and West Brom, Sky Sports News has been told. Ings, whose contract at Anfield expires in June 2020, was used as a late substitute by Jurgen Klopp in the Premier League games against Everton and Bournemouth in December. Ings has made just eight league starts since joining from Burnley in June 2015, mostly due to injury problems. He suffered a cruciate ligament injury in his first season and was on his way back when he sustained a second knee injury in November 2016. The England international made his comeback in the EFL Cup defeat at Leicester in September. Mark Hughes' Stoke sit 13th in the Premier League with two wins from their last six games, two points above 15th-placed Newcastle and 17th-placed West Ham. Meanwhile, Alan Pardew will be looking to add to West Brom's attacking options in January given the Baggies languish in the relegation zone on 15 points

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RB Leipzig make £17m move for Reece Oxford - but West Ham want to recall teenager from Bundesliga loan
Oxford is open to a permanent switch to Germany having enjoyed his time there after moving to Monchengladbach last summer
The Mirror
ByJohn CrossChief Football Writer
18:52, 28 DEC 2017

Red Bull Leipzig have made a stunning £17m move for West Ham prospect Reece Oxford. But the Bundesliga club are stuck in a three way battle for the 19-year-old as West Ham want to recall him from his loan spell at Borussia Monchengladbach who also want to sign him permanently. Oxford is open to a permanent switch to Germany having enjoyed his time there after moving to Monchengladbach last summer and has done enough to impress two clubs. West Ham boss David Moyes is also watching developments closely and does not want to lose Oxford who is viewed as being one of England's best defensive prospects. Moyes may now see him as being able to play a part in the second half of the season and, despite the huge money on offer, would not want to regret selling him further down the line. RB Leipzig are willing to pay £9m up front with further add-ons based on appearances and international caps with the fee potentially rising to £17m.

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West Ham plot Joe Allen transfer as David Moyes looks to reshape struggling squad in January window
PLUS: Moyes eyeing reunion with Sunderland's Lamine Kone with Alfie Mawson also on the radar
The Mirror
ByDarren Lewis
22:30, 28 DEC 2017

David Moyes wants to sign Stoke midfielder Joe Allen. The West Ham boss has made the 27-year-old Wales international one of his main targets for the January transfer window as he looks to reshape his side. Allen is a key man at the Bet365 under Mark Hughes. He is of interest to Moyes because of his versatility - Allen is able to play in advanced position but is also effective as a deeper-lying midfielder. Signed in the summer of 2016 by Stoke from Liverpool, Allen has had a number of Premier League admirers for some time. Swansea, who lost him in 2012, tried to sign him for now-departed Paul Clement during this year's summer transfer window as a replacement for Gylfi Sigurdsson. Moyes is also interested in a reunion with Sunderland defender Lamine Kone with Winston Reid, dropped for the Boxing Day draw at Bournemouth, on borrowed time. Kone, a 28-year-old centre-back, played a crucial role in keeping the Black Cats in the Premier League two years ago. Moyes persuaded him to remain at the Stadium of Light instead of defecting to Everton. But although Kone is still at the club he has been out of form and is recovering from a knee injury. Sunderland are willing to get him off the wage bill, however, and are open to doing a deal. West Ham are also keen on Swansea's Alfie Mawson with Moyes understood to want to sign two defenders. The Scot confirmed earlier this week that he will be active when the window reopens.

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