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Slaven Bilic has revealed that one West Ham starlet could have had the same career as Declan Rice if he'd better support from those around him. Bilic took charge of the Hammers in the summer of 2015 and got his time at the club off to a perfect start with a 2-0 win over Arsenal in his first game in charge. His biggest decision that day was to hand a senior debut to Reece Oxford - a 16-year-old talent who had come through the academy setup in East London. Not only did Oxford start the game and win man of the match, he had a pass completion rate of 95 per cent having given the ball away just once. Speaking after the match, Bilic said of Oxford: "People were asking: 'Are you sure he is 16? ' "It was going to be a risk but he has got something. I thought we needed someone to sit in front of the defence who is cool and can be a third defender, but who can also play on the ball. I am very proud of him. "Only on paper he is 16. He is a part of this new generation. Put it this way, if Lionel Messi was in front of me, I would be more fazed than Reece. "I know we have a good team and I know we have that in ourselves but I wasn't sure how we were going to show it. " Oxford would go on to make 12 senior appearances for West Ham that season and 17 overall in between loan spells with Reading, Borussia Monchengladbach and Augsburg who he joined in the summer of 2019. Since then the 25-year-old had gone on to make 80 appearances for the German side. Reflecting on Oxford's breakthrough at West Ham, Bilic told White and Jordan on talk SPORT, Bilic said: "It was a great game and a great start for me as a manager to beat Arsenal away 2-0. “Somebody got injured and we put Reece Oxford, who was 16 I think, in there as a holding midfielder to mark Mesut Ozil mostly and he did a great job because we won the game. “He had great potential and was very similar to Declan Rice who came through one year after. “Declan and the people around Declan were more focused and focused only on football and you can see how that developed his career. ” Explaining why he left West Ham, Oxford later said: “Everyone thought I was Superman and no one really knew what went on behind closed doors. “I was 16 and everyone thought I could play every week not knowing that I had injuries after a certain amount of games. "I had been with the first team since I was 14. I was never on my age group’s schedule, with the gym-work and everything. All the things you need to make sure your muscles are ready for the professional game. “[Instead] I was straight into the professional game. Injuries - back pains, hamstring problems, everything. "Maybe I also got a bit lost in the bubble because you would when you are 16 and coming out of school. I never had the attitude that they said I did. "You can ask everyone around West Ham. That was the picture they painted and it wasn’t a good one. ” While Oxford has struggled to fulfill his potential in the years since, Rice has gone on to become one the top midfield stars in the Premier League. After making 245 appearances for West Ham, Rice joined Arsenal in 2023 and has so far racked up eight goals and 14 assists in 69 games. He's also won 62 caps for England, scoring five times. © 2024 talk SPORT Limited

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