Transfer News 2022/23 Season Incoming Transfers and a few other things

[Pontification]

Anyone heard an update on Massimo Luongo? Was pictured with us but don't believe he's signed for anyone yet?

We need to go after him or Bate now!

 

[Jason N]

Or someone like Golding being snapped up by a perm side?

Hair today, gone tomorrow!!

 

[greatunclekip]

A DOF would not have changed this situation would it

A club triggers the release clause and you have to deal with it

A DOF would hopefully have a list of potential replacements and be on the phone to agents to get the wheels in motion.

 

[Foley]

Devastating to lose our most influential player a couple of days before our season starts.

There's understandably been a lot of excitement over some of the signings we've made in the last week or two, but I have some very real, and surely understandable concerns, and I think a bit of perspective is needed.

Wildschut, whilst a very good player, is 30, and has not played football at a meaningful level for several seasons, and by his own admission, wasn't match fit, so why play him in a poxy preseason game so soon after him singing, when surely letting him build up his strength and fitness in training would've been the right thing to do. His injury was NOT down to being unlucky, as when he signed, he said himself that he wasn't match fit, he should not have played, it's down to sheer naivety from KR.

Jones is a very good player, but also a complete crock, with knees made of biscuits. Did KR learn nothing from Rob Hall?!?

Browne was injury prone BEFORE he ruined his knee, so is a big risk. An awesome player, if he can stay fit. But he's injury prone. Time will tell.

Gorrin is only just returning after a serious knee injury, and nobody knows how his return will go.

Baldock, whilst a very good player, is very injury prone, and has barely featured since he's been here, except on the treatment table.

Bodin is a very talented player, but is also very injury prone, and will miss plenty of games.

Long is pretty injury prone as well, picking up more than his fair share of injuries each season.

Moore is a bit injury prone as well, with what seems to be an ongoing back problem.

Even Murphy, an awesome player, but by his own admission, hasn't played much in the last two years, and arrived not match fit, one week before the season starts.

Then there's the daunting prospect of Sinclair, a player who did nothing here first time around, who's hardly played at all for a long time, potentially coming on board.


Some VERY talented players in that list, but they all have a lot of VERY big question marks hanging over them, as to weather or not they can actually get fit, or stay fit.

Taking a punt on one, maybe two injury prone players, is fine and understandable, as if it doesn't work out, it wouldn't cause too much disruption, but a few days before the season starts, and we have half a squad either with very poor injury records, or lacking match fitness.

I thought KR would've surely learnt after the last few season's injury problems, and the risks attached to having such players in the squad. Did he not learn from having players like Hanson, Hall, Winnall and Thorne in the squad??

I had hoped he would've kept such players to a minimum, but he's actually doubled down this season, let's just hope we get lucky and it works out, and they don't all end up injured all at once!

Add to that the fact that we're a couple of days away from the start of the season, and there is still an imbalance that exists in the squad, with a lack of genuine adequate full back cover/competition, no genuine defensive midfield options, other than a player currently playing out of position in preseason to fill the role, and a player who has been out injured for months, and no genuine striker cover/competition. The signs are pointing to the fact that KR clearly has not learned from his previous mistakes.

People go on about how waiting until late in the window uncovers hidden gems that might not have been available earlier in the window, but I disagree, you just end up with admittedly very talented players, but players with poor injury records, and/or a serious lack of game time for 1,2 or 3 seasons, so well short of the fitness levels required at this level, and this is the reason why they are available so late in the window, because other clubs have the sense to steer clear, and bring in players who are more solid, reliable, fit and ready to hit the ground running.

If any of this latest wave of injury prone players, half fit players, or crocks turn out to be a success, it will be down to pure luck, not judgement.
If it's a success, KR will arrogantly claim all the praise, and say "I told you so", but if it goes wrong, he'll arrogantly blame everyone but himself, and bleat on about how unlucky we've been.

We weren't unlucky with the catalogue of injuries suffered by the likes of Winnall and Thorne, and haven't been unlucky with the injuries suffered by Bodin and Baldock since they've been here, KR knew the risks when he brought them in, regardless of their obvious talent, but brought them in anyway, then whinged about being unlucky when our injury prone players got injured!

Now he's brought in even MORE injury prone players, crocks and players who haven't played much or to any meaningful standard for several seasons, and one has already picked up a long term injury, and KR is once again bleating about being unlucky. I'd be more inclined to suggest it's more down to pure naivety on his part, to keep insisting on bringing these kinds of players into the club.

But he's Karl Robinson, he's a genius, and he knows best, and he's probably got a really talented crock lined up to replace Brannagan...

Goodness.

 

[Big Ron]

So doesn’t appear we had a back-up plan and therefore may suggest this has come in very last minute!

Not sure what Karl means when he said; “I’ll try to keep my head up and be dignified. There are so many things that aren’t right in my view, but I’ll just smile and wish him luck”?

Even he doesn't know what he means - about 50% of what he says is indecipherable and that's nothing to do with his accent! He has a million things whirring about in his head, many of which he can't articulate.

 

[Scotchegg]

You assured everyone he would be, didn’t you?

I'll tell you that the weather looks nice for the weekend if you promise not to cry if it rains!!

 

[Up The U's]

A DOF would not have changed this situation would it

A club triggers the release clause and you have to deal with it

The club knew that the release clause existed and what date it would elapse.
So until that date why was there not a rolling list of replacements (rolling as some will have been brought) so when \ if this happened, the club was not in the position is is now.
This seems too "larger picture" for a manager to keep tabs on, especially one that is seemingly the sole negotiator in transfers, but could be something that a DOF could have been over seeing.

 

[Osei Yaw]

A DOF would not have changed this situation would it

A club triggers the release clause and you have to deal with it

I'm not so sure. I remember when Ashton was here and he spoke a lot about succession planning. How you identify players you want for each position in advance so you can be ready to move on them as soon as you know a player is off or your first target fails to land. I'm not saying we don't have that now, but I imagine it's useful to have someone focused more on that rather than trying to do all the other bits a manager has to do.

 

[Reynolds97]

Its a joke we haven't planned for this - As a squad we are miles off it.

 

[Swaby39]

My God this could be the worst 10 pages I've read up to now.

Got everybody pointing the finger at the club/KR (shock) for being underprepared and yet the reaction on here doesn't exactly resemble a group of people that saw this coming either. Despite the interest in Cam over the years, we could all be forgiven for thinking he was at least going to play on Saturday - all the signs were there. It's a nasty shock for everyone even though it has been coming for a while. That's the nature of a release clause.

I fully expect the club has a contingency plan in place for Cam leaving and has done for some time but we can only start implementing that once we know he's going. That time is now. You can't go around players saying 'will you be there for us if and when Cam leaves?'. We'll have a list of target replacements but the club can't be sure who will be available at the time Cam left. It's poor transfer etiquette from Blackpool but this deal in isolation is absolutely nothing to do with the performance of Oxford United.

KR's interview was not a surprise - he wears his heart on his sleeve and he's lost his best player and a good relationship. How dare he show some emotion. But I agree, he needs to get it out his system and move on quickly - we all do. This is football.

I am perhaps a little too sunny side up but can't believe some of what I'm reading.

 

[Ox4Eva]

Glad to see the normal sensible approach from some on here.

The clause was met, it's out of KR's control.

Players come and go, not sure what the figure is, but hopefully the club has benefited.

Move on, win or lose up the U's!

 

[Tomox]

Its a joke we haven't planned for this - As a squad we are miles off it.

We don't know what we have planned for yet. The release clause was only triggered today so we can't just magically make a signing straight away - it's not FIFA! These things do take time and I want to see how we react over the next week. I agree that we can't be going into game 2 and 3 without a replacement though.

Let's judge the club on what they do in reaction to this. It was unavoidable and we did everything we could to keep him by all accounts, even countering Blackpool's offer with an improved contract but he wants to take this opportunity.

I am surprise someone has waited until he has a year left on his deal to trigger this release clause to be honest.

 

[Cotswolds Cowboy]

My God this could be the worst 10 pages I've read up to now.

Got everybody pointing the finger at the club/KR (shock) for being underprepared and yet the reaction on here doesn't exactly resemble a group of people that saw this coming either. Despite the interest in Cam over the years, we could all be forgiven for thinking he was at least going to play on Saturday - all the signs were there. It's a nasty shock for everyone even though it has been coming for a while. That's the nature of a release clause.

I fully expect the club has a contingency plan in place for Cam leaving and has done for some time but we can only start implementing that once we know he's going. That time is now. You can't go around players saying 'will you be there for us if and when Cam leaves?'. We'll have a list of target replacements but the club can't be sure who will be available at the time Cam left. It's poor transfer etiquette from Blackpool but this is absolutely nothing to do with the performance of Oxford United.

KR's interview was not a surprise - he wears his heart on his sleeve and he's lost his best player and a good relationship. How dare he show some emotion. But I agree, he needs to get it out his system and move on quickly - we all do. This is football.

I am perhaps a little too sunny side up but can't believe some of what I'm reading.

I think KR is a lot more angry than he's letting on

 

[Reynolds97]

My God this could be the worst 10 pages I've read up to now.

Got everybody pointing the finger at the club/KR (shock) for being underprepared and yet the reaction on here doesn't exactly resemble a group of people that saw this coming either. Despite the interest in Cam over the years, we could all be forgiven for thinking he was at least going to play on Saturday - all the signs were there. It's a nasty shock for everyone even though it has been coming for a while. That's the nature of a release clause.

I fully expect the club has a contingency plan in place for Cam leaving and has done for some time but we can only start implementing that once we know he's going. That time is now. You can't go around players saying 'will you be there for us if and when Cam leaves?'. We'll have a list of target replacements but the club can't be sure who will be available at the time Cam left. It's poor transfer etiquette from Blackpool but this is absolutely nothing to do with the performance of Oxford United.

KR's interview was not a surprise - he wears his heart on his sleeve and he's lost his best player and a good relationship. How dare he show some emotion. But I agree, he needs to get it out his system and move on quickly - we all do. This is football.

I am perhaps a little too sunny side up but can't believe some of what I'm reading.

Its hardly that surprising a cub that has chased him in the last 4 windows have come in for him again? The fact we haven't got anyone in mind to replace him is embarrassing. We needed more midfielders in before we knew this even more so now.

 

[RgYellows]

I think KR is a lot more angry than he's letting on

Is there a chance we leaked this just to try and spite Blackpool?

 

[Tomox]

Its hardly that surprising a cub that has chased him in the last 4 windows have come in for him again? The fact we haven't got anyone in mind to replace him is embarrassing. We needed more midfielders in before we knew this even more so now.

The odds of them triggering his release clause gets increasingly less likely the further into his contract he is. The club probably thought that when they failed to do this the last few times, they wouldn't do it this window because they can pick him up for free next year. There's been no links or rumours of this happening this summer so it's fair to say it's developed quickly. Maybe they've missed out on other targets, I don't know.

 

[OxfordNondie]

Cam gone, big hole to fill.
Timing poor

However there are proven players out there

My concern is that Henry is not fill in player we need, argued many times should have not renewed his contract.

This probably proves that statement

 

[Northernyellow]

Even he doesn't know what he means - about 50% of what he says is indecipherable and that's nothing to do with his accent! He has a million things whirring about in his head, many of which he can't articulate.

I'm not a massive KR fan. Too much chat and insufficient focus. I'm also not convinced he's the sharpest tool in the box. If he/the club don't have 2-3 possible replacements lined up for a key player who was always going to be a Championship target, then that's frankly ridiculous. It's just basic forward planning.

 

[Leysboy]

From a PR point of view the whole window has been dreadful

We said this all along, but others said wait until the end before deeming it bad, well it looks pretty bleak now.

 

[BDJ]

Robbo having a cob on about the timing and saying the team was being built around CamBran and the formation changed etc. He seems surprised and bewildered! Pathetic! It was obvious to most that he would leave this summer, He's given us longer service than we expected or deserved. Robbo should have a succession plan in place - no one player is bigger than the club etc. As for the timing, there's still a month of the window left - stop moaning, Karl! Shrewd business from MApp as per.