Reece Oxford exit leaves 'The Academy' in limbo as West Ham mimic Chelsea

'The Academy of Football'... that's in Germany, isn't it?

Well, not quite. But there's little doubt that Reece Oxford, West Ham's teenage starlet defender, will benefit from the year he will spend on loan at Borussia Monchangladbach next season - even though it appears to have unsettled some of the supporters.

If it was good enough for Rio Ferdinand to spend 10 games at Bournemouth in 1996-97 in the old third tier, it’s certainly an upgrade for 18-year-old Oxford to add to his experience with the team which finished fourth in the Bundesliga.

He could even play in the Champions League, with the club having qualified for the play-off round.

Still, it tells you a lot about the harsh realities of life for young hopefuls in the Premier League that the English club, which brands itself in its marketing splurges as one of the great young player factories, now sends its best prospects off to learn elsewhere.

For a club which hasn't won anything since 1980, talent production has been a huge source of pride for the supporters. Now they fear the modern game and its finance-driven priorities will cut off that life-blood of hope.

This is the great vexed question at the top level of the English game these days. It’s why the advance of the England side to the European U21 Championship semi-final against Germany on Tuesday is prompting discussion about whether the players involved will ever fully establish themsleves with top domestic clubs.

And that's a debate we've already had once this season following the U20s’ triumph in the World Cup last month - so complex is the issue.

So it is at West Ham. To some unhappy supporters, the departure of Oxford for Europe has prompted world-weary musings about his long-term future at the club, even though he recently signed a new three-year contract.

There is a lot of excitement among those supporters about young prospects like Domingos Quina, Reece Burke, Josh Cullen, Toni Martinez and Declan Rice.

But West Ham's policy has been to send most of them out on loan in order for them to get the experience which is so hard for them to gain while the competitive demands upon Premier League bosses are so intense.

Of course, it should be a tremendous opportunity in the Bundesliga for Oxford, who spent the second half of last season at Reading - after memorably making his first team debut as a 16-year-old at Arsenal in August, 2015.

But one of the problems here is about timing - and the enduring ability of West Ham's owners to say things which simply wind up their own fans.

Co-chairman David Gold received a hefty amount of criticism from the fans when he declared two months back that there will be few opportunities for youngsters to get into the current Hammers side, despite their troubles last season.

"We all have to accept that it is extremely unlikely that a teenager will break into a Premier League team full of seasoned internationals," Gold tweeted in May.

"Playing teenagers doesn’t guarantee success. Hull came fifth (in number of youngsters played) and got relegated. Chelsea came last and won the league."

He's not wrong. He was telling it as it is. But fans don't like hearing it, even though all Premier League clubs are now so wealthy they can cherry-pick ready-made, experienced players from across the globe.

In the case of defenders like Oxford, managers are particularly unwilling to risk raw youths at the back in such a highly physical and helter-skelter football environment as the Premier League.

Chelsea's huge successes of the Abramovich era have been built upon a clearly-defined policy of buying seasoned internationals rather than promotion of any homegrown products.

Their priority is to consistently win the biggest prizes. And they know exactly how it’s done.

For the supporters of clubs like West Ham, there is a difference - a question of degree.

They know their club isn't going to win anything big. And their cup record of recent seasons suggests it will be some time before they can think about winning anything ‘small’ either.

So there is another kind of satisfaction and achievement to be enjoyed if a youth player reaches the top.

It’s my guess that is this has prompted the twitchiness about Oxford's loan move. The fans want to see him in the first team. But the nature of the Premier League and legislates against it.

Bilic has given debuts to 11 Academy graduates since he took charge. And he has said this summer that he hopes to give more of the kids a chance.

He will have to solve English football's great Catch 22 problem to make it happen, though.