Manuel Pellegrini never favoured Reece Oxford when he took charge of the club, and now the former England youth international’s time as a Hammer is nearing its end.
Sky Sports are reporting that the ex-U20 Young Lion is close to securing a permanent switch to the Bundesliga, with Augsburg preparing an £8million offer.
Personal terms between the 20-year-old and the German top-tier outfit are yet to be agreed, however, although Oxford has been at the Bavarian side since joining on loan in January.
Under Martin Schmidt, our academy product has also made seven first-team outings – one fewer than he managed during the 2017/18 season with Borussia Monchengladbach – and assisted Marco Richter’s second goal against VfB Stuttgart as part of a 6-0 rout.
Oxford was an unused substitute for Augsburg’s following Bundesliga encounter, as Schmidt’s men lost 4-1 to Bayer Leverkusen, which was our centre-backs’ third game on the bench in a row, having been hauled off after 27 minutes against TSG Hoffenheim.
The London-born defender, with bags of unfulfilled potential, also missed Augsburg’s previous five games in all competitions, having been dropped from the matchday squad on the back of a three-game suspension after seeing red away to SC Freiburg.
Our board now cashing in on the Bundesliga outfit’s interest in Oxford is a great move, from our perspective, as Mario Husillos can then use that to fund any deals which will actually improve Pellegrini’s squad.
