Current Player Thread Jack Currie

[Carpy]

 

[Northernyellow]

That small club mentality is what saw us rise under Appleton. If you can build a sustainable player trading model, where you for example buy a player like Currie for 350k and then after 2/3 years flip him to a team like an Ipswich, or a Wolves for 4 or 5 million quid, that will make the club more attractive for other young players looking to grow and the cycle continues until it grows and grows.

Our most unsuccessful season of the last 10 years I would say is the last one under Karl, in which we stopped player trading to make a large push at finally getting over the hump.

Selling players should not be taboo. It allows for reinvestment. Look at Boro. They sold Latte Lath for 20 million quid and built the spine of a squad that will likely promote them to the premier league 18 months later.

Yup. And that's also what Brentford did as they were going through L1 and the Championship. There's nothing wrong with buying players to sell them on. As long as the club keeps investing in players who fit the 'template'.

 

[mariokempes]

His 1st half performance today was immense

 

[unification]

That small club mentality is what saw us rise under Appleton. If you can build a sustainable player trading model, where you for example buy a player like Currie for 350k and then after 2/3 years flip him to a team like an Ipswich, or a Wolves for 4 or 5 million quid, that will make the club more attractive for other young players looking to grow and the cycle continues until it grows and grows.

Our most unsuccessful season of the last 10 years I would say is the last one under Karl, in which we stopped player trading to make a large push at finally getting over the hump.

Selling players should not be taboo. It allows for reinvestment. Look at Boro. They sold Latte Lath for 20 million quid and built the spine of a squad that will likely promote them to the premier league 18 months later.

Some of the best players we’ve ever seen at the Kassam Stadium in an Oxford shirt have been because we had ‘the model’ in place. Signing hidden gems, developing them and selling them on for good profit.

From 2014 through 2022, we signed the following who matched that profile:

John Lundstram
Kemar Roofe
Joe Rothwell
Ryan Ledson
Rob Atkinson
Mark Sykes
Gavin Whyte
Rob Dickie
Luke McNally
Marvin Johnson
Chey Dunkley
Cameron Brannagan
Elliott Moore
Dan Agyei
Tarique Fosu
Marcus McGuane
Oisin Smyth

Not a bad team in there. You can throw in other profitable players including Shandon Baptiste and Tsun Dai too. Not all work out (Jamie Hanson, Cameron Norman, John Campbell) but we had more hits than misses.

I’d love to switch that model back on again. Yes, their flame with us will be brief but it’ll shine very brightly. It was never long before another gem came along.

 

[Jaboysmith]

Some of the best players we’ve ever seen at the Kassam Stadium in an Oxford shirt have been because we had ‘the model’ in place. Signing hidden gems, developing them and selling them on for good profit.

From 2014 through 2022, we signed the following who matched that profile:

John Lundstram
Kemar Roofe
Joe Rothwell
Ryan Ledson
Rob Atkinson
Mark Sykes
Gavin Whyte
Rob Dickie
Luke McNally
Marvin Johnson
Chey Dunkley
Cameron Brannagan
Elliott Moore
Dan Agyei
Tarique Fosu
Marcus McGuane
Oisin Smyth

Not a bad team in there. You can throw in other profitable players including Shandon Baptiste and Tsun Dai too. Not all work out (Jamie Hanson, Cameron Norman, John Campbell) but we had more hits than misses.

I’d love to switch that model back on again. Yes, their flame with us will be brief but it’ll shine very brightly. It was never long before another gem came along.

Exactly, and there were times where we had 3/4 at the same time it felt you could rely on to sell for a nice fee in the next window

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

 

[Mad Dog]

Says the kid who's superimposed a ridiculous shitty little beard onto his little baby face for his profile pic!

 

[Cass63]

Were the baggies fans giving him grief or something or is he a wolves fan, just wondered why he celebrated in front of them.

 

[Coffin Dodger]

He played most of the 2nd half right in front of them so perhaps they gave him some grief.

 

[Peterdev]

He played most of the 2nd half right in front of them so perhaps they gave him some grief.

I’m sure that’s correct. WBA fans appeared very unhappy with their day out. I thought it was a good game with a lot to be happy about

 

[Boris]

He played most of the 2nd half right in front of them so perhaps they gave him some grief.

I think they were unhappy with him when he went down 'injured' in front of them towards the end of the game

 

[Matt W]

Were the baggies fans giving him grief or something or is he a wolves fan, just wondered why he celebrated in front of them.

Yes something happened at a corner (I think) and currie went down for a bit not sure if it was a whack in the balls? They then gave him grief, hence the reaction

 

[38yearsofpain]

What is this obsession with selling off our players? People go on about other clubs saying #teamslikeoxford and moan about it but then we have our own fans saying any player that is any good for us will be sold in the summer.
That is small club mentality!
Players like Currie should be the ones we are trying to put a long term contract infront of them, not sell them off!

Correct, so if you do sell him, the transfer value increases 2 or 3 fold. I don't think its an obsession its accepting the current reality. You need 6 plus players of his quality to be a Championship contending side. The model should be to develop several players, you could argue that is what we are trying to do, but simply have recruited players who have not improved. I equally accept the argument that its hard to develop many players in a constant low block formation.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

A genuine great discovery and, where I will give the recruitment team a hammering for the majority of their decisions, Currie is a superb acquisition

And McDonnell will likely be similar.

Though I'm really not sure either qualify as a 'discovery'.

It's quite clear that as a club with a reasonable (by Football League standards) but modest (for this level) budget - our best route to Championship survival (until such time as Smans and Lauritsen become the norm) is spending reasonable fees on the best proven talent from below.

Instead of this massive hard-on for 'Championship experience' which, for our budget, tends to mean 'not very good in the Championship experience' or, at best, was 'once, a long time ago, good in the Championship experience'.

Worst case is an El Miz - fit, healthy, does a reasonable job - perhaps isn't considered quite up to it, so we get our money back.

But even that has got to be preferable, every single time, to chasing the elusive experience and ending up with Louie Sibley.

None of it is hard. It's just the difference between recruitment that is both obvious and sensible and recruitment that is obvious but incredibly lazy.

 

[38yearsofpain]

And McDonnell will likely be similar.

Though I'm really not sure either qualify as a 'discovery'.

It's quite clear that as a club with a reasonable (by Football League standards) but modest (for this level) budget - our best route to Championship survival (until such time as Smans and Lauritsen become the norm) is spending reasonable fees on the best proven talent from below.

Instead of this massive hard-on for 'Championship experience' which, for our budget, tends to mean 'not very good in the Championship experience' or, at best, was 'once, a long time ago, good in the Championship experience'.

Worst case is an El Miz - fit, healthy, does a reasonable job - perhaps isn't considered quite up to it, so we get our money back.

But even that has got to be preferable, every single time, to chasing the elusive experience and ending up with Louie Sibley.

None of it is hard. It's just the difference between recruitment that is both obvious and sensible and recruitment that is obvious but incredibly lazy.

All this obviously needs to be along side developing our own talent. That is another area that is presumably being developed but it starts by being proactive in kids under 7s football and trying to compete with the Premiership clubs that blanket cover this area ahead of us. Literally any child with potential will have been offered a trial with one of the London clubs before we appear to have cast on eye on them.

 

[holdsteady]

All this obviously needs to be along side developing our own talent. That is another area that is presumably being developed but it starts by being proactive in kids under 7s football and trying to compete with the Premiership clubs that blanket cover this area ahead of us. Literally any child with potential will have been offered a trial with one of the London clubs before we appear to have cast on eye on them.

I don't think we will ever be able to compete for the very best young talent in the local area, its why some clubs have moved away from even trying. A better idea is to to try and pick up the players let go by the prem clubs, that's where you can find a gem or two.

 

[MJB]

Yes something happened at a corner (I think) and currie went down for a bit not sure if it was a whack in the balls? They then gave him grief, hence the reaction

This was my assumption.

Just pleased it wasn’t Jamie Cumming taking one for the team with a ball to the, er, balls on this occasion.

His two veg is like a magnet seemingly!

 

[Marked Ox]

Yes something happened at a corner (I think) and currie went down for a bit not sure if it was a whack in the balls? They then gave him grief, hence the reaction

Yes, think it was the balls or into the stomach which winded him.

And to any fans, if you give it then expect it back.

 

[Northernyellow]

I don't think we will ever be able to compete for the very best young talent in the local area, its why some clubs have moved away from even trying. A better idea is to to try and pick up the players let go by the prem clubs, that's where you can find a gem or two.

I am pretty sure that all EFL clubs must now have an Academy of some sort. Brentford have been forced to reopen theirs, I think. Assuming we are an established Championship club in the next five or so years (which is very likely imo), then we'll have a really big catchment area. The PL clubs do try and hoover up all the talent.from.the age of eight onwards, but any parent who does more than five minutes research will know the child has a far better chance of turning pro with a smaller (ie not top ten PL) club. PL.clubs are far more ruthless in booting boys out of the Academy and they also have a habit of bringing in very highly rated boys from other countries- although that may have slowed since Brexit tbf. I have direct experience of this, as a close family member (15 years ago)was a very highly rated Academy player aged 14-15, with lots of interest from.PL clubs. He was with a L2 club at the time and that (a far better chance of going pro) was precisely their pitch to him. But they also insisted he leave school at 16, so he turned them down anyway and went to University. OUFC tended to lose the best local players (way before Martin Keown) because a) the training facilities were terrible and b) the club was a bit of a mess. But neither will apply going forward, and I would be reasonably optimistic that we will be able to capture the great majority of local talent. Fingers crossed etc.

 

[holdsteady]

I am pretty sure that all EFL clubs must now have an Academy of some sort. Brentford have been forced to reopen theirs, I think. Assuming we are an established Championship club in the next five or so years (which is very likely imo), then we'll have a really big catchment area. The PL clubs do try and hoover up all the talent.from.the age of eight onwards, but any parent who does more than five minutes research will know the child has a far better chance of turning pro with a smaller (ie not top ten PL) club. I have direct experience of this as a close family member (15 years ago)was a very highly rated Academy player aged 14-15, with lots of interest from.PL clubs. He was with a L2 club at the time and that (a far better chance of going pro) was precisely their pitch to him. But they also insisted he leave school at 16, so he turned them down anyway and went to University. OUFC tended to lose the best local players (way before Martin Keown) because a) the training facilities were terrible and b) the club was a bit of a mess. But neither will apply going forward, and I would be reasonably optimistic that we will be able to capture the great majority of local talent. Fingers crossed etc.

Who do we have in the current squad? Long and Goodrham, who came through years apart, considering how much running an academy costs its not exactly value for money, at the moment we are nowhere near producing players in either a decent quantity to play for us or good enough that we can sell them on and fund the whole academy. It would be nice for that to happen but it all seems a bit of a pipe dream at the moment, been no evidence that its going to bare much fruit for years.

Even Goodrham is not from Oxfordshire, its a pretty poor showing from a county of 800,000 to have only one player, and that one being 31, in its premier sporting team.

 

[Marked Ox]

All this obviously needs to be along side developing our own talent. That is another area that is presumably being developed but it starts by being proactive in kids under 7s football and trying to compete with the Premiership clubs that blanket cover this area ahead of us. Literally any child with potential will have been offered a trial with one of the London clubs before we appear to have cast on eye on them.

We've lost players from the Academy to PL clubs. Unfortunate but predictable especially with the rules as they are.

 

[Marked Ox]

Who do we have in the current squad? Long and Goodrham, who came through years apart, considering how much running an academy costs its not exactly value for money, at the moment we are nowhere near producing players in either a decent quantity to play for us or good enough that we can sell them on and fund the whole academy. It would be nice for that to happen but it all seems a bit of a pipe dream at the moment, been no evidence that its going to bare much fruit for years.

Even Goodrham is not from Oxfordshire, its a pretty poor showing from a county of 800,000 to have only one player, and that one being 31, in its premier sporting team.

Leo Snowdon and Louis Griffiths look very promising but unfortunately are injured. Also, Mo Missinga was on the bench recently.

As said above, we have also lost players to PL clubs.

 

[Northernyellow]

Who do we have in the current squad? Long and Goodrham, who came through years apart, considering how much running an academy costs its not exactly value for money, at the moment we are nowhere near producing players in either a decent quantity to play for us or good enough that we can sell them on and fund the whole academy. It would be nice for that to happen but it all seems a bit of a pipe dream at the moment, been no evidence that its going to bare much fruit for years.

Even Goodrham is not from Oxfordshire, its a pretty poor showing from a county of 800,000 to have only one player, and that one being 31, in its premier sporting team.

Don't disagree. The record in the last 15+ years has been pretty hopeless. But better training facilities, and a good standard first team, should help...

 

[Thomas/Brock/Jones]

I've wondered just what has happened to Oxford/ Oxfodshire talent .
In the 1980's whether for us or elsewhere we produced Mark Wright , Martin Keown, Garry Parker , Tim Breacker , Kevin Brock, Andy Thomas who all made it as top level professionals .
Robbie Mustoe , Joey ,Chrissy Allen , Dean Whitehead , Sam Ricketts , Dexter Blackstock , Gareth McCleary ,Bobby Ford ,Danny Cullip, Simon Marsh,Simon King ,Matt Taylor ( Pompey variety) 90's/ 00's excellent players
Robbie Cundy , Rob Street , Tyler ,Matty Taylor Sam Long, Kyran Lofthouse , Slavi Spasov Gaitlin , Jack Stevens, Luke Southwood more recently ...lower reaches of league/non league ...surely its time 2/3/4 top championship footballers came out of Oxfordshire again ?
I'm doing off top of head so may well have missed a few off but its puzzling

 

[Shabby Yellow]

From a WBA YouTube, well done JC

 

[Jaboysmith]

Somethings telling me we won’t see him again

 

[werthersoriginal]

Somethings telling me we won’t see him again

Oh no why? Is he badly injured?

 

[Symp59]

I read he needs an op preseason ,looks like that could be earlier ,sadly.

 

[BicesterU]

I read he needs an op preseason ,looks like that could be earlier ,sadly.

Think MB mentioned a couple of weeks ago that he had something in his ankle that needed 'tidying up' over the summer.

 

[MJB]

I read he needs an op preseason ,looks like that could be earlier ,sadly.

I think they’ll wait until the summer. He is putting himself forward for selection apparently, but his ankle is still causing pain so the club don’t want to risk him either getting injured or having to replace him in-game.

 

[uptheus]

Great result. Felt we should have scored in the earlier phases of dominance in the 2nd half, so nice to get the 2nd goal in the end.

Konak was my MOTM today, played well both defensively and offensively today.

Thought MPH was better today and obviously got a goal, but felt he faded. Also thought Donley was quiet(ish) again today. Shame Prelec wasn’t available and Placheta didn’t get on again, but nice to see Harris get a goal.

Thought Watford players looked disinterested.

Onto Derby next week!