Transfer News Transfer Window Summer 21

[Jolteon]

Robson and Boyle would be two excellent signings at this level and would be a fantastic reinvestment of the Atkinson money. Both available for a combined... Maybe 5-600k?

Super out the box shout at someone we could be having a think about - Jordan Ibe. Just left Derby, Charlton were potentially sniffing although seem to have cooled interest. KR probably will have known him from Liverpool youth. A player in serious need of a chance to revive a career, very much in the KR mould, although I imagine wages will be a stumbling block for most teams. Depends how much he wants that revival. Ipswich and Wycombe also apparently looking at him.

 

[RgYellows]

L

Posted about this in another thread, but I actually think there is. If you compare the window this far to even last summer's, it's a lot less experimental. There's much more proven League One quality coming through the door. MacGuane had found his feet before he got injured in January, Williams is a solid 7/10 League One player (from what I gather) and Bodin performed well at this level before moving to the Championship (although admittedly he does fit the mould of 'injury gamble' player you talk about). As building blocks go, though, they're a lot less of a gamble than, say, Sean Clare, Joel Cooper and Rob Atkinson, or even Cadden and Gorrin from the summer before (although they obviously ultimately did well). It seems to me that we're looking to get in players who know League One and can look to hit the ground running, rather than making educated gambles on promising youngsters from the lower leagues, Northern Ireland or Scotland.

At the same time, we're organising friendlies against teams in-and-around us, not just geographically but in terms of standard, too, rather than playing Rangers at Ibrox four days before playing Banbury Town. We've all moaned about our absurd pre-season schedules before, and it seems like the club are adjusting that approach for this year. Playing two teams that were in our division last year in friendlies is as close as we'll get to playing our league contemporaries in pre-season fixtures, and I think indicates that we're looking to get used to the standard of opposition we'll be playing all year early - again, with the aim of hitting the ground running.

Maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see, but so far it does seem to me like we have adapted our off-season approach this year. Whether it will work or not obviously remains to be seen.

Agree on your points on Atkinson and Dougall. Would be great if we could get in a replacement LCB who fits that role, proper big horrible bastard to give us a nasty edge.

Enjoyed reading this and I can get on board with the friendly point.

I don't think I'm really convinced on the new signings. It's nice to see a different perspective as my comments really were about how we were losing physical battles with other good teams, and any technical edge we (may) have wasn't showing up in the results against them. I thought Robinson acknowledged that we were lacking in this area and seemed like he wanted to improve on it. Even ignoring that, Forde had won promotion from League One and Winnall had success in League One before moving to the Championship and getting injured. Map them on to Williams and Bodin respectively pretty well.

Daddy isn't paying for it, he's investing.

He invests in training grounds and stadiums. When he buys new players hoping that he'll earn big bucks from a quick promotion, he's gambling.

 

[m]

He invests in training grounds and stadiums. When he buys new players hoping that he'll earn big bucks from a quick promotion, he's gambling.

I absolutely agree, and he's gambling large sums on really unfavourable odds.

 

[Topper Haines]

Let me just clarify. I am optimistic we will sign more and put ourselves in a good position. In response to the statement that we should be jumping for joy at our signings so far, i cant agree.

But will judge at the end of the window.

I agree with not jumping joy yet, we're clearly short. And we should all judge at the end of the window and not compare ourselves to other teams because they are signing lots of players otherwise we'd all be putting money on Morecambe taking the title.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

Jordan Ibe. Just left Derby, Charlton were potentially sniffing although seem to have cooled interest. KR probably will have known him from Liverpool youth.

Ibe was still at Wycombe when Robinson was already managing MK. He started off at Charlton (he’s from Bermondsey) and then went to Wycombe around age 11/12.

He’s been suffering from quite bad depression in recent years - his contract at Derby was terminated a year early because of it. I wonder how much he’s even thinking about playing football at the moment. Hope it works out for him, whatever his future entails.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Agree that we need to hold fire on judging how we have done in the transfer window until it's closed - but the start of the season rather than five weeks afterwards is a very important milestone IMO.

Not hugely impressed *so far* (McGuane blew a bit hot and cold for me, Williams is a L1 low-scoring* winger from a club who finished lower than us in the same division and Bodin is a potential crock) but we need to wait until all is done.

* 216 games - 21 goals.

 

[Mad Dog]

Under FFP we're only allowed to spend income that has been generated through player sales, matchday revenue, sponsorship/TV rights or money gifted by the owners.

We don't own the stadium and have had a year without fans, so matchday revenue is even more restricted than normal.

Sponsorship has its own ceiling at this level, and we had no big cup games to add to the TV income.

The owners can afford to gift money in, but have spoken about being sustainable whilst also funding the training ground, youth set up and the preparation work for the new stadium.

So the only way we can compete in the transfer market is by making a big sale each year, and anything around £2m IS a big sale for league 1.

Selling one player and bringing in 3 or 4 more is exactly what this model is about and I'd wait a week or so to see who we bring in before dismissing this as bad business.

Valid points, and I reluctantly accept your logic, but I don't like it one bit, not when we're selling players within one year of signing them.

I understand the model, but it's not the same model it used to be, and with the nature of most of our player sales recently, I'm concerned that we're evolving from being a selling club, into a feeder club, and there is a big difference between the two.

Under Mapp, we were a selling club, bringing players in, making them better players, whilst benefitting from their services on the pitch long enough to progress ourselves, before moving them on, and helping them progress their careers. Everyone's a winner.

Nowadays, we are looking more and more like a feeder club, bringing players in, benefitting from their services on the pitch, for a few months, but then either selling them halfway through their first season, derailing our season, and missing out on promotion, or selling them in the summer, and then repeating the process again the next season. Players benefit, buying clubs benefit, we tread water.

The only players we're keeping hold of, are players that we're not receiving meaningful bids for, or wouldn't be able to get any real money for anyway, or players that we signed on big contract with big wages, that we can't afford to release, or the crocks from the previous window, that we were stupid enough to sign in the first place!

By the looks of things, we're doing the exact same thing again this season...

If it turns out that this approach ends up bearing fruit, on and off the pitch, and we really start moving onwards and upwards, then I'll happily scoff down a large helping of humble pie, with egg all over my face, but it's taken Peterborough the best part of 10 years to gain promotion back to the Championship, using a model very similar, but evidently more efficient, than ours, so I'm not gonna hold my breath...

 

[Swaby39]

Valid points, and I reluctantly accept your logic, but I don't like it one bit, not when we're selling players within one year of signing them.

I understand the model, but it's not the same model it used to be, and with the nature of most of our player sales recently, I'm concerned that we're evolving from being a selling club, into a feeder club, and there is a big difference between the two.

Under Mapp, we were a selling club, bringing players in, making them better players, whilst benefitting from their services on the pitch long enough to progress ourselves, before moving them on, and helping them progress their careers. Everyone's a winner.

Nowadays, we are looking more and more like a feeder club, bringing players in, benefitting from their services on the pitch, for a few months, but then either selling them halfway through their first season, derailing our season, and missing out on promotion, or selling them in the summer, and then repeating the process again the next season. Players benefit, buying clubs benefit, we tread water.

The only players we're keeping hold of, are players that we're not receiving meaningful bids for, or wouldn't be able to get any real money for anyway, or players that we signed on big contract with big wages, that we're can't afford to release, or the crocks from the previous window, that we were stupid enough to sign in the first place!

By the looks of things, we're doing the exact same thing again this season...

If it turns out that this approach ends up bearing fruit, on and off the pitch, and we really start moving onwards and upwards, then I'll happily scoff down a large helping of humble pie, with egg all over my face, but it's taken Peterborough the best part of 10 years to gain promotion back to the Championship, using a model very similar, but evidently more efficient, than ours, so I'm not gonna hold my breath...

Whilst I am on the other side of the fence on this one, I can appreciate those points entirely and that was well said.

There is some common ground here in that all of us want to see our best players remain in an Oxford shirt as long as possible. The cruel reality of being a club at this level is you need to capitalise on those players while you have them because anybody that overachieves will be offered a chance at the big time very quickly and holding them back may cause much wider problems than you expect from a performance perspective but also financially which is a huge gamble that would probably hurt us more down the road. From the outside looking in, we are in an envious position and the likes of Lincoln are now trying to replicate what we do.

There’s no doubt that when you go up, you stand a better chance of retaining your better players but this is not a given as we will still be at the lower end of the wage bracket. The challenge for KR with this model is they have a very short window in which these younger players need to adjust and take us up before they get pinched. This might be why our first 3 signings are players that are hot to trot at this level with similar ones linked. I think there could be more contracted players this year which will help and we generally seem to be targeting players just a year or two behind their peak but with plenty of games behind them which is a good balance.

 

[Mad Dog]

Two solid signings if they come off.

Will Boyle was very highly thought of, and made the league two team of the year despite missing the last quarter. He had a knee injury, but should be ready for full training now and theres no reason why he won't get a full preseason in. It looks liek he had issues with his PCL which is pretty common, especially with defenders due to the impact of tackles. It appears to have been a strain rather than a tear, and rest and recovery work will get most players back to 100%.

Boyle is 6ft 3, left footed, plenty of games behind him, leadership qualities, goal scoring options. Not much to dislike about that - although the usual few will be already sharpening their sticks to poke the club with!! Ron Atkinson missed games for us last year, but we still sold him for peanuts according to some! Virtually everyone in the game will have injuries at one point or another, so I don't get the obsession that some have with the crocks label.

Jamie Robson is also a good left back who can get past players and has nearly 200 games under his belt as a 23 year old. He's into the last year of his contract which will drop his value to around £300k which will be a decent deal.

Of course both will be mates with Robbo, not good enough, untested crocks!

For christ sake Scotchers, nobody is suggesting that a player is a crock, simply because he's had a recent injury or two!

But when we keep signing players, who have barely played for 2-3 seasons, due to atrocious injury records, then I think it's fair and understandable that people will be concerned about those players being a crock.

You really need to accept the fact that the club doesn't ALWAYS get every decision right, even though you ALWAYS try to claim they do!

Thankfully, most people on this forum are capable of seeing both sides of the coin, and will always praise the manager and club when they do good things, which they do, but will also not shy away from speaking up and criticising the club if we feel they've dropped the ball and got things wrong, and shouldn't be criticised and mocked for simply having a realistic and balanced outlook.

Boyle and Robson look like they could be good additions to the squad, and I don't see anything to suggest they will be considered crocks if we do hopefully manage to sign them.

But taking into consideration the nature of our recent transfer dealings, what I'd be more concerned about, would be them stringing together a dozen good games, and then losing them in January, for less than they're worth.

 

[Oufcrealist]

For christ sake Scotchers, nobody is suggesting that a player is a crock, simply because he's had a recent injury or two!

But when we keep signing players, who have barely played for 2-3 seasons, due to atrocious injury records, then I think it's fair and understandable that people will be concerned about those players being a crock.

You really need to accept the fact that the club doesn't ALWAYS get every decision right, even though you ALWAYS try to claim they do!

Thankfully, most people on this forum are capable of seeing both sides of the coin, and will always praise the manager and club when they do good things, which they do, but will also not shy away from speaking up and criticising the club if we feel they've dropped the ball and got things wrong, and shouldn't be criticised and mocked for simply having a realistic and balanced outlook.

Boyle and Robson look like they could be good additions to the squad, and I don't see anything to suggest they will be considered crocks if we do hopefully manage to sign them.

But taking into consideration the nature of our recent transfer dealings, what I'd be more concerned about, would be them stringing together a dozen good games, and then losing them in January, for less than they're worth.

Agreed. Very well said!!

 

[Mad Dog]

Whilst I am on the other side of the fence on this one, I can appreciate those points entirely and that was well said.

There is some common ground here in that all of us want to see our best players remain in an Oxford shirt as long as possible. The cruel reality of being a club at this level is you need to capitalise on those players while you have them because anybody that overachieves will be offered a chance at the big time very quickly and holding them back may cause much wider problems than you expect from a performance perspective but also financially which is a huge gamble that would probably hurt us more down the road. From the outside looking in, we are in an envious position and the likes of Lincoln are now trying to replicate what we do.

There’s no doubt that when you go up, you stand a better chance of retaining your better players but this is not a given as we will still be at the lower end of the wage bracket. The challenge for KR with this model is they have a very short window in which these younger players need to adjust and take us up before they get pinched. This might be why our first 3 signings are players that are hot to trot at this level with similar ones linked. I think there could be more contracted players this year which will help and we generally seem to be targeting players just a year or two behind their peak but with plenty of games behind them which is a good balance.

I agree, it's a tricky one, as we all want the best for the club, and we all understand the model we have is needed for a club of our size in league one, weather we like it or not, it's a hard fact of life for lower league clubs, that when the big vultures start circling, the writings already on the wall!

But we have various different opinions on how that model can be used to the clubs advantage, and I must say it's nice to receive a constructive response for once, and not be slated, mocked or criticised for simply having a different opinion, right or wrong!

 

[Scotchegg]

For christ sake Scotchers, nobody is suggesting that a player is a crock, simply because he's had a recent injury or two!

But when we keep signing players, who have barely played for 2-3 seasons, due to atrocious injury records, then I think it's fair and understandable that people will be concerned about those players being a crock.

You really need to accept the fact that the club doesn't ALWAYS get every decision right, even though you ALWAYS try to claim they do!

Thankfully, most people on this forum are capable of seeing both sides of the coin, and will always praise the manager and club when they do good things, which they do, but will also not shy away from speaking up and criticising the club if we feel they've dropped the ball and got things wrong, and shouldn't be criticised and mocked for simply having a realistic and balanced outlook.

Boyle and Robson look like they could be good additions to the squad, and I don't see anything to suggest they will be considered crocks if we do hopefully manage to sign them.

But taking into consideration the nature of our recent transfer dealings, what I'd be more concerned about, would be them stringing together a dozen good games, and then losing them in January, for less than they're worth.

Considering some have already referred to Boyle as another crock, I think my point is valid!

"Most" people on here do have a very balanced view and there are sensible discussions on all sides of which ever coin we are discussing. But equally there are those who are unable to see the positives in anything! McGuane has been described as nothing special and injury prone. Williams as no more than an average league one player without an end product. Bodin as someone who's career is over. Of those rumoured to be interested in, Jason Kerr as worse than Atkinson, Will Boyle as crocked, Joe Tomlinson as a non-league unknown etc.

And with all due respect, the comment that we will look to sell some of these players in January for less than they're worth is bordering on the hysterical, especially considering the assumption that £2m for Atkinson is having our pants pulled down!

I'm not sure that any of that can be described as having a "realistic and balanced outlook"

 

[Nadi-]

The club have turned away offers from higher level clubs in the past. Brannagan Millwall comes to mind.
But if the offer matches the clubs valuation of the player then fine.
As Atkinson says in his interview. Once he heard who it was, he was keen for it to go ahead.
Good business all round, and a bonus if he’s a success with a good sell on clause.

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

And with all due respect, the comment that we will look to sell some of these players in January for less than they're worth is bordering on the hysterical, especially considering the assumption that £2m for Atkinson is having our pants pulled down!

Did we get £2m for him then? If so that’s not bad, especially if there’s a decent sell-on fee as well

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Considering some have already referred to Boyle as another crock, I think my point is valid!

"Most" people on here do have a very balanced view and there are sensible discussions on all sides of which ever coin we are discussing. But equally there are those who are unable to see the positives in anything! McGuane has been described as nothing special and injury prone. Williams as no more than an average league one player without an end product. Bodin as someone who's career is over. Of those rumoured to be interested in, Jason Kerr as worse than Atkinson, Will Boyle as crocked, Joe Tomlinson as a non-league unknown etc.

And with all due respect, the comment that we will look to sell some of these players in January for less than they're worth is bordering on the hysterical, especially considering the assumption that £2m for Atkinson is having our pants pulled down!

I'm not sure that any of that can be described as having a "realistic and balanced outlook"

Bodin has been crocked recurringly. Surely the fear that might happen again is reasonable?
Williams does not have an end product if your definition of that is a goal return over a season (fact - he scores at about four goals a season) - of course you may choose to say that his effectiveness lies in other areas, but I'd like my forwards to pitch in with a few goals. He has been playing for a L1 club at a very similar level to ours for three years.
McGuane may well be an excellent signing - he was certainly turning into an influential part of the team when he got injured. Let's hope he gets back to that level.

For the record, I think £2m for Atkinson is good business - with the proviso that we can replace him with someone equally effective for less than £2m!

Of course, for someone with such a one-eyed view of anything and everything the club does, anyone who is more cautious will appear to you as being 'negative'. I'd just say there is a difference between being a fan and being a fanboy.

 

[nige01ox]

Williams does not have an end product if your definition of that is a goal return over a season (fact - he scores at about four goals a season) - of course you may choose to say that his effectiveness lies in other areas, but I'd like my forwards to pitch in with a few goals. He has been playing for a L1 club at a very similar level to ours for three years.

To be fair though much the same could have been said about Shodipo when he signed, but from an output perspective he turned out pretty well. When we signed him, he had 0 goals in 44 senior appearances. Last season netted 13 in 46 games for us.

As for Williams, his best goal scoring season was that previous loan with us when he was young. Sometimes it just clicks at the right club. Also depends on the position/role he has been mostly playing. For example, I would expect more goals from my RW and LW involved in a front three than from my RM/LM in a midfield 4 formation.

 

[Mad Dog]

Considering some have already referred to Boyle as another crock, I think my point is valid!

"Most" people on here do have a very balanced view and there are sensible discussions on all sides of which ever coin we are discussing. But equally there are those who are unable to see the positives in anything! McGuane has been described as nothing special and injury prone. Williams as no more than an average league one player without an end product. Bodin as someone who's career is over. Of those rumoured to be interested in, Jason Kerr as worse than Atkinson, Will Boyle as crocked, Joe Tomlinson as a non-league unknown etc.

And with all due respect, the comment that we will look to sell some of these players in January for less than they're worth is bordering on the hysterical, especially considering the assumption that £2m for Atkinson is having our pants pulled down!

I'm not sure that any of that can be described as having a "realistic and balanced outlook"

If it really is £2m straight up, plus a hefty sell on fee, then I'll hold my hands up, and admit, that's not too bad for a league one defender.

But I was under the impression (as were many others) that it was £1.6m, with add ons, which will no doubt depend on certain milestones being achieved, such as appearances, goals, clean sheets, promotion, avoiding relegation etc, which significantly lessons the appeal of such a deal, and is why myself and others felt we may have had our pants pulled down somewhat. Although I obviously assume regardless of the fee and any add-ons, there is a hefty sell on clause.

But regardless of all that, I'm still not happy with losing a key player after just one season, as if we keep allowing such a rapid turnover of players, it will seriously hinder our chances of building and maintaining a promotion winning side, that would surely yield a lot more money in the long run, than a quick fire sale every time we produce a gem?

But maybe we could've tried to convince him to do what Dickie did, and stay for one more season, with a written promise he can then leave if he still wants, but if we then get promoted this coming season, we could've benefitted from the financial gains of being in the Championship, and then sold Atkinson for much more than we just have, or even kept him, as we'd then be in the league he wanted to play in anyway.

But even if we didn't get promoted, then this time next year, he'd be worth even more anyway, but what with him entering the last year of his contract, we could've still got the same for him as now anyway.

But who knows, maybe that's exactly what we did try to do, and he wasn't interested, and wanted to leave now, and if so, ce la vie.

Let's move on!

 

[Mellowyellow]

Squad broken up? Rebuilt? This is all a bit dramatic… yes we lose a key player most years but hardly anybody outside the PL can avoid this and it is simply not as easy as keeping them because we need them the further down the pyramid you go. Nothing we’ve done in recent years resembles a rebuild.

Players have been sold, and the high proportion of loans we had, gone back to their parent clubs. So far this season, Josh Ruffels, Robert Atkinson, Brandon Barker, Matt Taylor, Elliot Lee, Kelly, Shopido need replacing this early in the transfer window....and that's not a rebuild?

 

[Tomox]

Players have been sold, and the high proportion of loans we had, gone back to their parent clubs. So far this season, Josh Ruffels, Robert Atkinson, Brandon Barker, Matt Taylor, Elliot Lee, Kelly, Shopido need replacing this early in the transfer window....and that's not a rebuild?

Taylor?

 

[NottsYellow]

Players have been sold, and the high proportion of loans we had, gone back to their parent clubs. So far this season, Josh Ruffels, Robert Atkinson, Brandon Barker, Matt Taylor, Elliot Lee, Kelly, Shopido need replacing this early in the transfer window....and that's not a rebuild?

Matt Taylor??