oxfordfan1
Active member
In my opinion I think the likes of brannagan/fosu and many others will stay and gain promotion with us, its there first decent run of games and look how well there playing and enjoying there football. opinions?
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General Brannagan & Co to stay and take us to the championship?or not....
- Thread starter oxfordfan1
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andystroud
Well-known member
My opinion is that your English grammar needs to be worked on
andystroud
Well-known member
As for the subject matter, I believe the squad will stick together in January, as long as we are in or around the play-offs. If we can keep Cadden and Taylor, that would be an added bonus.
oxfordfan1
Active member
i do apologise squire
H
horseman
Guest
something along the lines of ....2m +Add ons we couldn''t stand in their way and was very difficult for the player to turn down 3 or 4 x his wages...
of course it will remain undesclosed
of course it will remain undesclosed
That's the ideal scenario. If we keep up our recent form I see no reason why it wouldn't happen. Cadden might be tricky to keep, but I can see Taylor staying on and hopefully permanently.
Sarge
God like member
Personally i dont like the knock down price market stall type of transfer fees -like the miserly £2m in real terms for Whyte-(plus addons ) approach many championship & lesser PL clubs use in deals to l1, l2 & non league clubs (like us).. ...i know the 'plan' is to cash in periodically on our players, id prefer it if they wernt sold on for a pittance in comparison to their real value (and what it costs to replace them)
RyanioBirdio
Well-known member
It’s a tall ask for both the club and any player to turn down anything concrete that may arrive in January. We lose millions a year and players can easily triple their wages simply going to a decent Championship side, sometimes more than that. You’re one bad tackle or one nasty slip away from an injury ruining it - it’s all good and well waiting until the summer until someone breaks your ankle or your knee pops, and then everyone has lost out. That’s the reality of football. Romance is a lovely thought but realistically if the right bid arrives that means the club goes back in the black for the year, and a player can go from 2/3k a week to 6/7k a week absolute minimum overnight, it’s a tough sell.
What would be interesting is if a seriously big club came in for somebody. If Everton really did come in for Baptiste, for example, I think there would be an excellent chance of them agreeing to loan him back for the remainder of the season, as he’s very unlikely to get near their first team for a while. If it were a Championship club coming in for someone like Brannagan, however, it’s much more likely that they’d want him to be in and around the squad immediately and so loaning him back would be much more unlikely. Spurs were happy to let Dele Alli finish the season at MK, but if he’d gone to somewhere like Notts Forest or Sheffield Wednesday, chances are they’d have wanted him in the 18 almost straight away.
It’ll be an interesting window either way. I suspect somebody will be off, but I also suspect that more than one will come in if that happens. If come January a top six finish (perhaps even top two) looks a genuine possibility, I think there’s every chance that a good chunk of cash may be reinvested.
What would be interesting is if a seriously big club came in for somebody. If Everton really did come in for Baptiste, for example, I think there would be an excellent chance of them agreeing to loan him back for the remainder of the season, as he’s very unlikely to get near their first team for a while. If it were a Championship club coming in for someone like Brannagan, however, it’s much more likely that they’d want him to be in and around the squad immediately and so loaning him back would be much more unlikely. Spurs were happy to let Dele Alli finish the season at MK, but if he’d gone to somewhere like Notts Forest or Sheffield Wednesday, chances are they’d have wanted him in the 18 almost straight away.
It’ll be an interesting window either way. I suspect somebody will be off, but I also suspect that more than one will come in if that happens. If come January a top six finish (perhaps even top two) looks a genuine possibility, I think there’s every chance that a good chunk of cash may be reinvested.
amershamdave
RIP
Will we keep our better players in the near future? Do bears sh*t in proper toilets? Come on, this is Oxford (let's cash in on anything that moves) United. I'm still in pain thinking of Mark Wright, Dean Saunders, John Aldridge being sold to make a quick Robert Maxwell House buck. More recently, Roofe, Johnson, Nelson, Whyte, O'Dowda and Maguire. Ok, some left and that was their decision. But the truth is, we couldn't keep a bloody secret, let alone really good players.
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Scotchegg
Well-known member
Firstly, whether people believe it or not, we sold Gavin Whyte for much nearer £3m PLUS add ons. If he achieves all of the milestones in place, we will have gained around £3.5m for a player who cost peanuts and only had one year in the EFL. That's really not a bad deal.
Secondly, there are no plans to sell in January. We stayed within budget in the summer by making some clever deals. Cadden saved £200k+ by coming on loan, Taylor gives us the striker we wanted but without paying upwards of £300k as similar players would have cost, Woodburn is mainly paid by Liverpool. In addition, Gorrin, Forde and Ageyi were relatively cheap and whilst we paid a bit for Moore his wages are significantly lower than Nelson. Overall, our wage bill has been cut this year but with much better value.
We also have a very happy camp with a clear, single aim. Tiger, Zaki, NMW, KR have all said openly that promotion is our target this year. The players are very much focused on promotion too. After the draw against Accrington, Brannagan was pissed because he saw that as two points dropped for a team wanting promotion. The feeling around the club is very positive, Ben Woodburn travelling with the team instead of putting his feet up at home, the likes of Long, Sykes, Baptiste etc all happy to play bit parts waiting for their chance. This only happens at a very well structured club, and usually only when everyone buys in to the same goal.
Players are attracting interest. Baptiste, Dickie, Brannagan and Fosu are all being watched. Conversations take place and I wouldn't be surprised if more conversations happen as January approaches. But it will take really silly bids to get any of our players, and by silly I would guess at upwards of £5m. I know that there will be those who will cling to the idea that Tiger and co. are in it for the money and will cash out early, but that honestly isn't the case.
I'm sure I'll attract the usual comments of being the mouthpiece of the club, or being some disilusional idiot, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. But like when I was saying in the summer that wait until our business is done before judging, I would also ask that people wait until the end of January before speculating on things that a very unlikely to happen.
Secondly, there are no plans to sell in January. We stayed within budget in the summer by making some clever deals. Cadden saved £200k+ by coming on loan, Taylor gives us the striker we wanted but without paying upwards of £300k as similar players would have cost, Woodburn is mainly paid by Liverpool. In addition, Gorrin, Forde and Ageyi were relatively cheap and whilst we paid a bit for Moore his wages are significantly lower than Nelson. Overall, our wage bill has been cut this year but with much better value.
We also have a very happy camp with a clear, single aim. Tiger, Zaki, NMW, KR have all said openly that promotion is our target this year. The players are very much focused on promotion too. After the draw against Accrington, Brannagan was pissed because he saw that as two points dropped for a team wanting promotion. The feeling around the club is very positive, Ben Woodburn travelling with the team instead of putting his feet up at home, the likes of Long, Sykes, Baptiste etc all happy to play bit parts waiting for their chance. This only happens at a very well structured club, and usually only when everyone buys in to the same goal.
Players are attracting interest. Baptiste, Dickie, Brannagan and Fosu are all being watched. Conversations take place and I wouldn't be surprised if more conversations happen as January approaches. But it will take really silly bids to get any of our players, and by silly I would guess at upwards of £5m. I know that there will be those who will cling to the idea that Tiger and co. are in it for the money and will cash out early, but that honestly isn't the case.
I'm sure I'll attract the usual comments of being the mouthpiece of the club, or being some disilusional idiot, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. But like when I was saying in the summer that wait until our business is done before judging, I would also ask that people wait until the end of January before speculating on things that a very unlikely to happen.
amershamdave
RIP
If he stays injury-free, I can see Shandon Baptiste going far.
andystroud
Well-known member
You say that, but he has already turned down the opportunity to go to Grenada and that is quite a long way
IsleofWightYellow
Well-known member
Baptiste has alarmingly lost form though and has effectively been dropped. He’s still young of course and hopefully this is just a blip in the road...
Not sure if this is a joke post but he’s not lost form or in a blip, he just isn’t as good as Brannagan or Gorrin at the moment
Yellow Submarine
Active member
I think it’s more of a case of being carefully managed after an extremely serious injury.
It felt like he was rushed back after his dislocated shoulder and that was because we were really struggling at the time and he was a rare shining light. After this latest injury the team is flying and there’s no need to take any risks with Shandon
IsleofWightYellow
Well-known member
Not as good as Brannagan and Gorrin? Previously he played in a midfield three with them, so I don't see how that argument works. Henry was moved from the wing, where he was doing well, to accommodate him not being in the team. We play with 3 CMs so theres space in the team for him no matter how well Brannagan and Gorrin play.
Baptiste played amazingly against West Ham but then wasn't as good in his starts after that, which saw him taken out of the team, no doubt for his own good, but I guarantee you if he'd have played equally as well against Accrington and Portsmouth he'd still be in the team. In fact Robinson was furious with him when he was subbed off against Portsmouth.
This isn't a massive criticism of him or saying he isn't an amazing talent with a bright future, but it's unarguable that he hasn't played as well as he did against West Ham, since, and after starting two games in a row has been on the bench a couple of times. I hope he is back in the starting XI on Saturday and plays well.
I don't think we need to leap to conclusions with Baptiste - he's a young player, with all of, what, 25 games of first team experience behind him (at least at league level). He's going to have ups and downs in form. He had a couple of poor games after West Ham, and we've got some great squad depth at the minute, so he's taken a breather for a few.
Personally, I'd get him back in this weekend. Home against a side we should be beating - and as well as Sykes has done, Baptiste is a better player.
Gorrin, Brannagan & Baptiste in the middle, Henry & Fosu out wide behind Mackie. That's a scary proposition for Rochdale…..
Personally, I'd get him back in this weekend. Home against a side we should be beating - and as well as Sykes has done, Baptiste is a better player.
Gorrin, Brannagan & Baptiste in the middle, Henry & Fosu out wide behind Mackie. That's a scary proposition for Rochdale…..
I think this might be the worst joke I've ever heard on this forum (and that includes the interminable fish puns of the COD era)!
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