West Ham United have announced pro deals for Reece Oxford and Joe Powell.

The 16-year-olds have both agreed their first professional contracts with the Hammers and put pen-to-paper during half-time of Tuesday's FA Cup tie against Everton.

Academy Manager and Head of Coaching and Player Development Terry Westley is delighted to have secured their signatures. He said: "Now we have Reece and Joe long-term we can put a plan in place for the next four seasons.

"First and foremost I'm delighted that they've both committed to the Club, but from a developer's point of view it gives me time to work with them and try to put all those ingredients in place to become first team players.

"This makes a statement to other clubs out there that we're not going to let our best players leave and go elsewhere to ply their trade. There's been a lot of interest in both Reece and Joe and that's why we needed to put things to them and make it a long-term project.

"We look at it like the Olympics, in four-year cycles. You finish London, then you look at Rio and you want to become a Gold medalist in those four years. The Gold medal for us is them playing for West Ham United in the Olympic Stadium in four years' time."