Transfer Window January 2026 Post Transfer Window Thread

[Carpy]

 

[90syeIlow]

Since MPH and Mills came into the squad, albeit at different times of the season, some of our crosses have been excellent and we never have a striker with the positional awareness to get on the end of them.

Lankshear used to be good positionally until he started to copy Harris with regards to occupying defenders rather than the ball and Prelec is injured, so we really needed a target man in this window, although I'm happy to see the increased technical ability and creativity from midfield should help us to score more.

 

[unification]

Thornily has left by mutual consent.

Where has that been announced? It’s not on the OWS as of 12.13pm.

Not a surprise if so. This spell never really worked out for him.

Dembele, Leigh, Krastev, Prelec and perhaps even HTA remain the bigger question marks though.

 

[Marked Ox]

Where has that been announced? It’s not on the OWS as of 12.13pm.

Not a surprise if so. This spell never really worked out for him.

Dembele, Leigh, Krastev, Prelec and perhaps even HTA remain the bigger question marks though.

Just looked at OWS and it is on there now.

 

[werthersoriginal]

You know, sometimes having an outlet - someone peeling off a defender, making runs - that can create more chances.

Just look at Shemmy's goal vs Ipswich. Now imagine a striker with pace who is an out-ball when we're up against superior technical sides.

Imagine that - instead of humping the ball to Harris to ignore in favour of backing into a defender, or to Lankshear to get bullied and wrestled to the ground against two 6"3 Millwall meatheads - we have someone who can time a run and outpace the average centre-half at this level.

You'd like to think it would be worth trying. That, or we can keep pumping the ball up to an isolated striker and watch it come back again pretty swiftly.

We're not going to dominate the ball. We're not going to create wave after wave of chances. We need something to keep the opposition on their toes. Too often it's Shemmy alone (and they double up on him) or BDK (same treatment).

But imagine a front 3 of say, Shemmy, Emankhu and a pacy striker infront of a midfield 3 (so BDK and Cam have a McDonnell to help with the heavy lifting) and we could potentially have a robust midfield and enough pace up top to trouble the opposition and prevent their wingers (and often full backs) from pegging us back.

Surely got to be better than playing 5 at the back, 2 in midfield and allowing the opposition to completely dominate us meaning any pace out wide is completely redundant and our lone striker completely isolated.

Yes I agree, I used to love Dean Saunders. I guess it's just about who we could get in the time available though. We've signed plenty of attacking players I know nothing about so I'll give them a chance.

 

[Emilio]

Here's a general breakdown of our squad by position.

Not a suggested lineup or formation, and you could argue moving central players out wide and vice versa, but this helps clear things up a little (in my head at least).

 

[headingtonoldboy]

Personally, I would keep Prelec. He can certainly hold the ball up, is strong and hold off defenders. He was brought in as a striker but mismanaged by GR. When he's fit, stick him as the lone striker and I think we'll see what he's made of.

 

[True Supporter]

View attachment 33357

Here's a general breakdown of our squad by position.

Not a suggested lineup or formation, and you could argue moving central players out wide and vice versa, but this helps clear things up a little (in my head at least).

Where's BDK?

 

[Emilio]

Where's BDK?

Had him down as KdB Have corrected.

 

[Gordon]

Okay window - 6/10.

Positives: We have improved in some areas, namely central midfielder, where McDonnell and Konak add a bit more mobility and better options for the deeper CDM position. Peart-Harris looks a good player, though I suspect we haven't seen him play in his best position yet.

Negatives: Squad looks bloated, and we are carrying too many loan players. We could have done with another centre forward rather than another left-back.

 

[Toe knee]

How do you get eight new players to gel, bond & fight a relegation battle, if they're nearly all loans??.
Are they gonna be up for a scrap & put their bodies on the line???? Only 18 games left to gett a fighting spirit Mmmmmmm

 

[bazzer9461]

Thornily has left by mutual consent.

Thank you Jordan and good luck

 

[DenbighYellow]

Had him down as KdB Have corrected.

He's very good, but he's not that good

 

[Mintyshoe]

4 at the back:

5 at the back:


Laying out the options in our most likely formations seems to suggest the following are surplus:

- Leigh
- Vaulks
- Placheta
- Dembele
- Krastev

With Goodhram and Prelec out injured.

 

[Mad Dog]

I rated it good, based on intent, as I’ve never seen any of the players we’ve signed before, so don’t know if they’re good or not!

But the intent was there from the club, and it was good to see them recognise what we needed and do the best they could to make it happen.

But like it or not, we are “little Oxford” at this level, so we can only do so much, and in such a short window, and such slim pickings at this time of the season, it was always gonna be very difficult to bring in exactly what we needed.

Fingers crossed we’ve brought in enough to keep us up, then hopefully we approach the summer window with the same level of intent, but with more time to get things right, and lessons learned from last summer!

It’s over to Bloomfield and the lads now…

 

[ljs]

Thornily has left by mutual consent.

I think that just leaves 28 senior players over 21, so three to not register, which for me would be: Goodrham (injury), Krastev (loanee) & Romeny.

That would then leave us with seven loanees, and of those I can't see the need to have both of the CBs (Davies & Makosso) in the matchday squad.
The other to miss out... probably whoever is injured!

On the whole, apart from needing another CF, the squad 'looks' much better than a month ago.

 

[The Voice Of Reason]

The early clear out continues

 

[OUFCwaffle]

Could someone do a quick summary of all the ins and outs and their positions please? Struggling to keep up with it all

 

[Carpy]

Could someone do a quick summary of all the ins and outs and their positions please? Struggling to keep up with it all

Done

 

[carefreeoufc]

Reflecting on the window, I think it's been pretty decent to be fair. Not one for taking up space on the 'positive bus', I believe there are some positives worth acknowledging. Although I still maintain that over the last 3-4 transfer windows (certainly since returning to the Championship) there's been a distinct lack of strategic direction.

Donley/Lankshear. Whilst I haven't seen Donley play in the Championship, I'm hopeful that they can form a bit of a partnership, as the two players did in the PL2. In their last full season playing together, Donley/Lankshear scored 23 times between them, Donley with 12 assists. If they can get on the same wavelength again, Lankshear will hopefully get more opportunities in front of goal.

Our young, permanent signings are combining with Dodds. It's felt like a while since we've picked up players early in their careers who have the potential to be real assets for us. McDonnell and Emakhu will hopefully benefit from a coach like Dodds, as will Jin-Woo as he adapts to English football.

The squad is still a little heavy, but we now finally have some options beyond flogging the same old players to death. We also have players who can come off the bench that can actually contribute as opposed to making up the numbers.

 

[Osei Yaw]

As others have said it's hard to rate until you see the impact, but on the face of it it looks pretty positive to me. I feel like I am largely rating it on intent and so I've gone for 4. We've moved on players we know add very little and brought in others that, on paper at least, look to offer much more. It's a gamble but one we have to take if we want to survive and, as ever in football, results become the most important measure of success. In 3 months time we will all be judging it differently based on whether we stay up or not.

The main standout for me is how the profile of player has massively changed. We've clearly had a shift back towards younger players that have a transfer or two left in them. The average age of our arrivals is 22, whereas the departures is 27, which I'm pretty happy about. The tried and tested Championship player model (Bradshaw, Phillips, Vaulks) has had a limited success rate for us, which is no surprise really when you consider our current standing as a Championship club and the types of player with bags of Championship experience that we'll be able to attract. Of course it's likely that not all our January additions cut it for us, but those that do will hopefully cover the cost of those that don't and then some.

Something has also definitely shifted from Jerome's prediction of a relatively quiet January to the one we've just seen. I suspect that is largely down to Thohir. He was heavily involved in appointing Bloomfield and I suspect in sacking Rowett, with all of this coming since his controlling interest was confirmed to have increased in November 2025. I suspect our next set of accounts are going to be eye watering, so at least getting some younger players in with potential will hopefully go some way to helping turn that around in the future, but we must be absolutely miles off being sustainable at the moment.

I do wonder how much promotion or relegation will cost. Reading between the lines and some (possibly all?) of our loans will become permanents if we stay up. If that's right then I guess we've started the summer transfer window early if we do survive. However if we go down and all the loans leave then the summer transfer window thread is going to melt my brain.

 

[dickwalton1964]

Been a disastrous second spell here for Thorniley. Good luck to him, seems a good pro.

 

[WokinghamYellow]

So is it 5 that we can’t register? I would guess that will be Tyler, Krastev, Leigh, Dembele and HTA?

 

[Digby]

Remember you get higher fitness levels with younger players more than say the age of Cam Bran . If they bond and are hungry enough I think we can survive and stay in the championship, and look how close 4/5 teams are scrapping it out and tonight the game in hand if only we can get a result it will make all the difference!

 

[carefreeoufc]

So is it 5 that we can’t register? I would guess that will be Tyler, Krastev, Leigh, Dembele and HTA?

Eastwood won't be registered.

 

[WokinghamYellow]

Eastwood won't be registered.

I didn’t count him in the 30 possible!

 

[Common Villager]

Doe Emakhu count towards the squad limit?

 

[Jster]

I think it's "just" Goodrham plus 2 others who won't be registered. Spencer and McDonnell are young enough not to count, I think.

 

[holdsteady]

So is it 5 that we can’t register? I would guess that will be Tyler, Krastev, Leigh, Dembele and HTA?

Its not 5 as two players are under the age limit for registering. Can see another one or two departing as well.

 

[Littlemore Local]

Here's my version. 15 a side bring it on.
Two of these would need to be cut by the weekend.

 

[Osei Yaw]

View attachment 33375
Here's my version. 15 a side bring it on.
Two of these would need to be cut by the weekend.

We'd still find a way to get overrun in midfield if we played that formation.