Ex Player Mark Sykes goes to Bristol City.

tonyw said:
Bristol City's business seems a bit weird to me if they're essentially replacing COD with Sykes.

I guess it's a combo of Sykes being three years younger, more versatile and less injury prone. Probably cheaper as well.

But is he really the better player of the two?
Even though he had just barely turned 21 when he left, COD had already shown vastly more end product than we've ever seen from Sykes! And now he has 160 games worth of Championship experience.
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Had he, what were the stats on his assists and goals?
 
Sykes has got himself a decent deal at Bristol City and will bag himself over £1.5m if he sees out the 4 years. He'll be 25 when the season starts so this will set him up for life and he'll have the option to drop down the leagues for a few more years at the end of his contract, or settle back in Ireland with a very comfortable home!

Ultimately his time at Oxford was frustrating with moments of excellence, but all too frequently missing the end product. I thought that he had a decent season for us, and was excellent for most of the first half.

It hasn't worked out and we can wish him well moving forward but also hope that we'll see better next season.
 
At times a really good player, but far too inconsistent for me. I’m not losing any sleep over him going And not a player I will look back in years to come with any great fondness.
 
Good move for him. I think he'll be a decent squad player at Championship level, but ultimately lacking the finish product and physicality to really shine. He had some really good performances for us: West Ham at home springs to mind. He was also one of very few players to come out of both the Playoff final and last year's semi-final with any credit. Ultimately, however, I'd say his time here was disappointing, largely because he just couldn't seem to produce the goods on a consistent basis.
 
tonyw said:
Bristol City's business seems a bit weird to me if they're essentially replacing COD with Sykes.

I guess it's a combo of Sykes being three years younger, more versatile and less injury prone. Probably cheaper as well.

But is he really the better player of the two?
Even though he had just barely turned 21 when he left, COD had already shown vastly more end product than we've ever seen from Sykes! And now he has 160 games worth of Championship experience.
Click to expand...
Hasn’t O’Dowda been out of the side recently though? His career has meandered somewhat.
 
Scotchegg said:
Sykes has got himself a decent deal at Bristol City and will bag himself over £1.5m if he sees out the 4 years. He'll be 25 when the season starts so this will set him up for life and he'll have the option to drop down the leagues for a few more years at the end of his contract, or settle back in Ireland with a very comfortable home!

Ultimately his time at Oxford was frustrating with moments of excellence, but all too frequently missing the end product. I thought that he had a decent season for us, and was excellent for most of the first half.

It hasn't worked out and we can wish him well moving forward but also hope that we'll see better next season.
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Disagree. He was one of our best players this season and generally delivered good service for the club.

Clearly though he’s upset people at the club if the brevity of the departure statement is anything to go by.
 
PottersRightBoot said:
Hasn’t O’Dowda been out of the side recently though? His career has meandered somewhat.
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He was a regular early on in 2021/22 - played 20-odd games up until the beginning of February - but then got hurt and didn't play another game after that.

It's fair to say that COD's career stagnated. Five years ago he was a solid squad player for a smaller Championship club, and now......he's a solid squad player for a smaller Championship club.

But unless his injury problems are likely to cause issues going forwards (I don't know.....they may), then it looks to me like Bristol are replacing a proven Championship player with one who may be able to play at that level, but who to this point has only shown himself to be a talented but erratic League One level player (Sykes has always looked skillful, and always worked hard in yellow - but in terms of end product, he really only had one good three month spell with us).
 
tonyw said:
He was a regular early on in 2021/22 - played 20-odd games up until the beginning of February - but then got hurt and didn't play another game after that.

It's fair to say that COD's career stagnated. Five years ago he was a solid squad player for a smaller Championship club, and now......he's a solid squad player for a smaller Championship club.

But unless his injury problems are likely to cause issues going forwards (I don't know.....they may), then it looks to me like Bristol are replacing a proven Championship player with one who may be able to play at that level, but who to this point has only shown himself to be a talented but erratic League One level player (Sykes has always looked skillful, and always worked hard in yellow - but in terms of end product, he really only had one good three month spell with us).
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Think COD had a good couple of seasons and was linked with bigger clubs but got injured at the wrong times and now needs a kick start it seems.
 
Scotchegg said:
Sykes has got himself a decent deal at Bristol City and will bag himself over £1.5m if he sees out the 4 years. He'll be 25 when the season starts so this will set him up for life
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Long gone are the days when £1.5m has you set up for life - comfortable maybe, but I doubt he'll be turning up at the Ferrari dealership for a his n hers 296 anytime soon.
 
A little surprised at the flak he appears to have got following his initial statement/comments when joining us, he is clearly a young ambitious man and at least he was honest by saying he saw us as a stepping stone to better things ahead for his career. Would rather hear an honest comment than the generic lovely club,ambitious great fans etc.

Surely Mark Sykes on joining us is what our model is about.

A decent player whom I for one enjoyed watching and I wish him every success and happiness in all aspects of life.
 
Oxymoron said:
Long gone are the days when £1.5m has you set up for life - comfortable maybe, but I doubt he'll be turning up at the Ferrari dealership for a his n hers 296 anytime soon.
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Does ‘set up for life’ mean having two Ferraris now?!

I could easily set myself up for life with £1.5m - as in being able to live comfortably without having to work.
 
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