Football Season Guide

Oxford United

In


Tony McMahon (def) (Scunthorpe - back from loan), Alex Gorrin (mid) (Motherwell), Kevin Berkoe (def) (Wolves U18), Sam Allardyce (def) (Bury U18), Tariqe Fosu (mid/att) (Charlton)

Out


Jerome Sinclair (sp) (att) (Watford - back from loan), Luke Garbutt (sp) (def) (Everton - back from loan), Ahmed Kashi (r) (mid) (Troyes - back from loan), Jordan Graham (sp) (mid) (Wolves - back from loan), Samir Carruthers (sp) (mid) (Sheffield United - back from loan), Marcus Browne (r) (mid) (West Ham - back from loan), Charlie Raglan (sp) (def) (Cheltenham), Curtis Nelson (r) (def) (Cardiff), Scott Shearer (sp) (gk) (released), Jonathan Obika (sp) (att) (released), Harvey Bradbury (att) (released), Jonte Smith (att) (released)

Oxford started the previous campaign in a rather disappointing manner and battled against the drop for more than a half of the campaign. It always looked like there was a rather good team in the U's, but they were repeatedly showing signs of being naive, which proved costly particularly on their travels, as they only recorded their first away victory in late February. They ended the season in superb form, but their revival came too late for them to push for a play-off place, which was their original goal going into the campaign. With Robinson seemingly finally finding the winning formula, the U's entered the summer with plenty of optimism, but have been frustrated in the summer transfer market so far. Curtis Nelson has joined Cardiff, while Marcus Browne is back at West Ham, with Oxford reportedly set to fail in their bid to sign the player on a permanent deal. The signings made so far include two youngsters in Kevin Berkoe and Sam Allardyce, a midfielder with no previous League One experience in Alex Gorris and Tariqe Fosu, a player that Robinson is well acquainted with, having managed him at Charlton before. While the U's have lost only two truly important players, they currently look a touch weaker than they were last season, as they never had the biggest of squads, and saw it additionally shrink over the summer. However, the club reportedly do have money available to bring in players and will likely bring in several new faces over the upcoming weeks.

Target


Their goal will be to finish inside the top six and they might just have a chance if they make decent signings in the coming days.