Transfer Window January 2024 Transfer Window Thread

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LowerSouth said:
I agree .
For me a player who should go at the end of the season
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I think that's taking it a bit too far, because the player we saw in August and September was too good for League One.

He does seem to have an issue with maintaining his top level of performance over a whole season - and that's why I likely wouldn't be putting a four year contract on massive wages in front of him like some on here would have been.

But I would certainly be triggering the one year option he apparently has, and working with him to try and figure out why he can't seem to sustain his top form over longer periods.
 
Oufcrealist said:
Yes agree. If, and it can happen both are out. We'll then have Smyth and McEachran as a pairing and tbf that's probably lower half table standard.
We do need cover there.
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I think that's generous, unless Smyth is a lot better than we imagine him to be - but three managers have hardly played him. We need a strong, fairly quick midfielder as first reserve and to provide competition!
 
Richmansoccer said:
What a waste of time this thread is - Nothing but B*****s after B*****s with no relevant information 190 pages + of anything of any consequence! Shut down this thread now!
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Salmon pants would no longer have somewhere to find which players to try and sign then.
 
McGuane needs to be unshackled. I don't really want to see him moving the ball between the centre backs and full backs. I want to see him 20 yards higher up the pitch with cover behind him, then we'll see him cruising past opposition players with the ball.
 
Osei Yaw said:
McGuane needs to be unshackled. I don't really want to see him moving the ball between the centre backs and full backs. I want to see him 20 yards higher up the pitch with cover behind him, then we'll see him cruising past opposition players with the ball.
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Agreed, the idea that he’s a holding midfielder has always been so misguided. He’s a special talent with a skillset very few if any players have at this level. He turns 25 in a couple of weeks, his best years are still ahead of him, I find it crazy that anyone could not want them to be with us. We need to be giving him a new deal, not talking of letting a prized asset go.
 
tonyw said:
Three goalscorers is a nice-to-have, but definitely a luxury when you only play one up front (and although we do shift our formation around, it has only been between 4-3-3 and 3-4-2-1, so we're always just playing one central striker).

For me it's far more important now to add another wide player - because whilst we would seem to have a lot of bodies, I'm not convinced we'll get a whole lot more out of Edwards, Browne & Murphy this season given their track records, and we have no idea what we'll get from Burey. Which just leaves Tyler plus a couple of older guys in Bodin & Henry who really should be playing centrally at this point in their careers.

And the second priority for me would be a box-to-box central midfielder so we're not stone dead if anything happens to Cam.

So yeah, a new striker would be a bonus. But that's only if we can fit three more players into the wage bill.
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I think it's a like-for-like positional replacement thing. We've replaced Beadle with Cumming, Perkins with Goodwin, the Browne/Edwards left wing position with Burey. We still need to replace Mills and O'Donkor (assuming the latter's going to be loaned out, which seems to be a fairly likely option). So that's right wing and forward still needed.
 
Osei Yaw said:
McGuane needs to be unshackled. I don't really want to see him moving the ball between the centre backs and full backs. I want to see him 20 yards higher up the pitch with cover behind him, then we'll see him cruising past opposition players with the ball.
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I don't think anyone would disagree with that, other than to say that when McGuane's role and qualities are discussed - particularly in relation to his (at times) negative traits - there is always this talk of him somehow being 'shackled'.

As if some malevolent force (a manager, a system) has some power over him limiting his true potential.

Whereas I'm inclined to think there is something in his nature (and possibly his footballing upbringing) that encourages this lack of forward drive.

No-one else seems to get the shackled excuse. For me, he needs to be more consistently positive in his play - and that can only really come from him.
 
McGuane is a favourite of mine and I’ve still seen nobody join that knocks him of his perch as the best player, technically, we have at the club in my eyes.

The issue I think which we squash all too often with many players is how often he plays. He is slogged through 90 mins game on game in a high intensity position so it’s no surprises his ‘drop’ in form coincides with the winter pile up of games most seasons. He’s at his absolute best when he’s fresh, fit and firing and we seem to use all of that from him in the opening 3 months, burn him out and then wonder why he’s running on virtually empty. There are so many facets to proper squad depth and planning that we’ve overlooked for too long. He’s been a victim of this in my eyes and there should be no thought of letting him leave the club unless he no longer wants to wear the shirt.

Firmly in the undroppable category for me even at the 60/70% of his best we are currently seeing, but he needs support and a someone to carry some of the less precious minutes. Really surprised we haven’t done more about this in January.
 
I've felt we have needed a player in the mould of Digby at Cambridge for some time. Someone who is physical and adds a bit of height to the team. I don't think you win a league with him playing every game but you'd feel more assured seeing out a game compared to our current options.

We are carrying a big squad with too many not contributing. I would think Buckingham would want to add something, but we just don't have the budget and room to add unless someone like McEachran somehow leaves.
 
To my mind as Oxford players there are/were similarities between Mcguane and Herbie Kane, both clearly talented, technically good footballers.

But to be playing either of them sat in front of the back four, just feels like a waste of their talents, when they could and should be be doing some damage to the opposition further up the pitch. They both have the ability to do that.

Whenever this is suggested, there’s always a knee jerk reaction that you’re somehow criticising the player, which isn’t the case.

It’s similar to the Ciaron Brown debate, when myself and other were saying he would better in the centre of defence rather than at leftback. It wasn’t a criticism of Brown as a player, far from it, just an observation that he and the team would be better if he moved to central defence and a recognised leftback was brought into the club.
 
It’s a real risk not adding a decent, athletic, physical midfielder to the squad. There’s still a lot of games to be played. I really can see a scenario where we lose either McGuane or Brannagan to suspension or injury just as we head into the play-offs. Would anyone be confident of getting through them with either of those two unavailable as things stand with the squad?
 
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