David Gold: 'Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal were interested in Reece Oxford'

West Ham United co-chairman David Gold has said that the club fought off competition from Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal to hold on to 16-year-old Reece Oxford.

Oxford made his Premier League debut on the opening day of the season and earned plaudits for his role in West Ham's 2-0 triumph at Arsenal.

However, Gold revealed on Twitter that a number of last season's top four were interested in taking the youngster away from Upton Park before he signed a new deal with the Hammers.

We had to beat off Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal to keep Reece Oxford on a long term deal. dg pic.twitter.com/ML9XSNeKoh

— David Gold (@davidgold) September 13, 2015

Oxford started West Ham's first two league games of the season, but has only played eight minutes of football since.