Attacking Midfield
Tyler Goodrham - This feels like a make or break season incoming for Tyler. Learning off Aaron Ramsey, he has a huge chance to express himself and flourish in a more attack-minded side. It’s fair to say Tyler struggled with the physical demands of the Championship, yet still had some bright moments, adding to his ever-growing category of ridiculous goals. With the lack of options behind him, he will be expected to play a lot of minutes this season, presenting him with the opportunity to add to his G/A tally and take on a big responsibility in this team. It is worth remembering though, that he hasn’t played since New Year’s Day, when he picked up a serious ankle injury. Whilst this may mean he takes a bit of time to get up to match speed, it may play into our hands in putting off potential suitors from placing bids this summer.
Louie Sibley - Footballers don’t become ‘bad’ overnight. With the famous tweet that often does the rounds, when he first burst on to the scene at Derby, Louie was compared to the likes of Jude Bellingham and Eberechi Eze. Having not been given much of an opportunity during his time at Oxford, Aaron Ramsey has the chance to extract the quality out of him that he’s previously shown; presenting Louie with a chance to shine but also a chance for Ramsey to enhance his managerial credentials. Whether we was part of the plans pre-embargo or not, he will have to play a fairly big role this season, either in covering for Tyler Goodrham or filling in in a deeper midfield role.
Marselino Ferdinan - Honestly, is he even contracted to the club?
In Tyler Goodrham, we have a player that has previously shone at this level, and as has been repeated with many others, will only be better off the back of two seasons in the Championship, standing us in pretty good stead in this position compared to the rest of the league, with there not being many other attacking midfielders at this level I would swap Tyler for.
However, the depth, or lack of, in this position is very worrying. In Louie Sibley, we have a player unproven for Oxford and who has struggled in two previous League One loans, with there not being any other options beyond him.
Overall, on balance, this probably places us about mid table for quality in this position, making it one of our weakest.
Right Wing
Stan Mills - The biggest talking point of the summer: will he stay or will he go? The likelihood is, that regardless of the embargo, Stan was always likely to leave the club this summer, given the talent he showed at the level above. He is a huge asset, and presents the club with an opportunity of a potential record sale, with most being profit, which will be very hard to say no to, especially given the financial circumstances. However, if we were able to keep Stan, this itself would go a long way to propelling us up the table. At his creative, athletic best, he has the potential to pose silly numbers in League One, but unfortunately I’d be very surprised if we saw this become a reality due to the transfer speculation surrounding him.
Jeon Jin-Woo - Jeon can count himself unlucky to play as little as he did in the second half of last season, with that largely being down to the quality of the player ahead of him, but also the tough ask of adapting from Korean football to the pace of the Championship. With that being said, he did post some impressive goalscoring numbers in South Korea, scoring 20 times in 45 games for Jeonbuk Hyundai. You can make what you like of the standard, but the reality is, his outright goalscoring numbers are much better than any other wide option at the club, and if this can be translated, like we’ve seen many East Asian footballers across the EFL do, then he could be a really exciting proposition to step up and replace Stan Mills.
Aidan Elliott-Wheeler - Pictured a lot in pre-season, Aidan enjoyed a very successful loan spell at Gateshead last season, where he was very highly thought of. Playing all across the right-hand side, Aidan is a Youth Team product who has been on the periphery of the First Team for a couple of years, featuring in a number of pre-season matches for the club in previous years. He may be a nice, versatile addition to the squad going into next season.
Overall, it’s as simple as if we can keep hold of Stan Mills, then we have the best right winger in the league, and one of the best players at that.
However, in the case that we don’t, the position does look significantly weaker given the lack of depth and the inexperience of the few options.
Given the fact he is unproven in this country, let alone league, I’d place Jeon Jin-Woo as a lower mid-table right winger, who, as of right now, is much inferior to any options that our potential rivals have in this position, for example the likes of Isiah Jones at Luton and Kyreece Lisbie at Reading.
Left Wing
Aidomo Emakhu - I’m investing my stocks in Aidomo this season. Given the price we paid for him (reportedly upwards of £1 million), and his experience at a high end Championship team in Millwall, I and the club, are expecting big things from him, and he certainly has the ability to deliver. He has publicly said he was very disappointed with the start to life he made at the U’s but it felt like he came into his own towards the back end of the season. With his pace and ball carrying ability, coupled with his capacity to go on both the inside and the outside of the full back, he is an exciting proposition, particularly at this level. If he can add goals to his game, he may not be far off what Stan Mills could be on the other side.
Siriki Dembele - The collective sigh when you here his name is noticeable, and as much as everyone, myself included, has heavily criticised him during his time here, I’m willing to give him this season as a final chance to prove his worth. At the very least, he is a good ball carrier and with his low centre of gravity, is able to weave in and out of players. His end product in the last two seasons has been nothing short of awful, but there is hope within the club, that with the step down in level, this may not be such a problem, although I for one, am sceptical of that. It is worth noting that in the 2020/21 season, at this level, he notched 21 G/A, so there is clearly something there that can be drawn out of him.
Leo Snowden - Leo is widely viewed as the best Youth Team product from this current crop of lads, with his goalscoring numbers at under-18 level being frankly absurd. He can play off the left or up top, but as an introduction to men’s football, throwing him in as a striker may be too big of an ask. If we can bed him into the side, and not over-use him like we did with Gatlin O’Donkor, he could be an exciting prospect over the next few seasons.
There is definitely more experienced and a higher standard of depth on the left wing than on the right, and if both Aidomo and Siriki can exploit League One, then it makes for a top 6 level left-hand side.
Aidomo Emakhu, could well be one of the best wingers at this level in a few months time, although it’s hard to make the case for that given he hasn’t played a minute in this league.
Beyond him, there are definitely some question marks, but at this moment in time, the likes of Barnsley’s Reyes Cleary and Sheffield Wednesday’s Louie Barry stand out ahead of our options.
Striker
Mark Harris - As a player, it’s fair to say Sparky splits opinion within the fanbase. Whatever your opinions of him are, you can’t deny the importance of his work rate and pressing, consistently putting in the hard yards for the better of the side. As a goal scorer though, he has proven to be very inconsistent, to say the least. He started his time at the club by soring 3 goals in his first 3 games, but then failing to do so again until New Year’s Day 2024, setting the tone for his Oxford career. He then did similar, in our first season in the Championship, notching 4 goals in his first 4 games, before failing to register another before Boxing Day. At best he is patchy, but the bigger concern is the number of big chances he misses when down on confidence. If he can knit it all together and put the ball in the back of the net a bit more frequently, say scoring a similar total to the one he set in 2023/24 of fifteen, then he can be considered a solid, well-rounded striker. However if his woes in front of goal continue, we may have a pretty big problem in this area.
Gatlin O’Donkor - You have to feel sorry for Gatlin. He may not be the greatest of strikers, but one thing’s for sure: he has been massively let down by the club. The reliance and over-use of him in the 2022/23 season under Karl Robinson has undoubtedly hindered his development, setting a marker for how not to embed a Youth Team player into the First Team. Young players can easily burn out, and this is likely what happened to Gatlin, with him being unable to hit the ground running in either of his loan spells at Barnet or Bristol Rovers. Regardless of that, he is going to have to be our back-up striker for the coming season, and he certainly has a point to prove to get his development and ultimately career, back on track.
This is probably the most worrying position in the squad, with the lack of an out-and-out goal scorer and a severe lack of experienced depth. Mark Harris is going to have a big responsibility on his shoulders and Gatlin O’Donkor will have to chip in with a couple of goals here and there, if we are going to be successful. As you can probably tell by the tone, I’m not particularly confident in either option. This, I imagine, would have been the area we were most urgently looking to address in the transfer market pre-embargo.
In comparison to the rest of the league, and in fairness to Mark Harris, he does have a decent goalscoring record in League One, recording 15 goals in 43 games in his last season at this level, as previously mentioned. This probably puts him around a mid table level striker in this division, getting into roughly half of the starting elevens in this league, in my books.
As for Gatlin O’Donkor, in all honesty, as of right now, he is probably one of the weakest strikers in the whole of this league, maybe finding his way into a couple of the newly promoted teams’ starting lineups, at a push.
Conclusion: What should our expectations be?
All in all, we have a really top end League One starting eleven, even if we were to lose two or three of them. Frustratingly, had we been able to sign players and strengthen the squad, and had Aaron Ramsey had a simple transition into management, I firmly believe that we could have easily challenged for automatic promotion, with playoffs being a minimum.
It’s certainly not all doom and gloom though. Let’s say we were to lose Michal Helik, Brian de Keersmaecker and Stan Mills, our starting lineup would likely be Cumming; Spencer, Long, Brown, Currie; Brannagan, McDonnell; Jin Woo, Goodrham, Emakhu; Harris. Whilst this isn’t as strong as it could have been, it is effectively the side that got promoted in 2023/24, with what I believe to be a better right back, left back, midfield, and right winger.
With that being considered, if injuries don’t hit us too bad, the embargo can be lifted going into January, and most crucially, Aaron Ramsey is able to show managerial credentials and prove himself to be a good appointment, then we can most definitely challenge for playoffs.
The problem with this is, as you’ll notice, there are a lot of ‘ifs.’ If just one of those things goes against us, it will be a big hit on our objectives. Probability would suggest, and with this being Oxford United, at least one of those will likely go against us at some point.
This therefore means, with the lack of squad depth, that we are probably looking at a season of mid-table nothingness, in all honesty, ranging from anywhere from tenth to fifteenth position, in my view.
With a range of unrealistic positivity and needless, over-exaggerating negativity doing the rounds, some will view this as an incredibly disappointing season and some would snap your hand off for mid-table now.
The reality is, that the off-the-pitch circumstances will have an impact; the strength of that impact is for now unclear though, and won’t be until we have seen this team play and have had some sufficient communication from the club.
Regardless, it will be more important than ever to get behind this team and manager, especially at inevitable ‘down’ points, if we want to achieve anything. Creating a ‘siege’ mentality at a time like this, has the potential to drive the team on to huge success. Equally, if things don’t improve higher-up, the potential negativity could be a huge hinderance. At the risk of sounding like a ‘happy clapper’, no matter your thoughts at board level, taking out that frustration on the team will only worsen the on-pitch situation and could lead to circumstances none of us want. This is needless to say though, because as we have seen over recent years, at times of struggle no one gets behind their team like we do, and this will be crucial going into this season. COYY!
Thanks for taking the time to read what is hopefully the start of some consistent articles throughout this upcoming season, albeit this one being slightly longer than I had expected!
Tyler Goodrham - This feels like a make or break season incoming for Tyler. Learning off Aaron Ramsey, he has a huge chance to express himself and flourish in a more attack-minded side. It’s fair to say Tyler struggled with the physical demands of the Championship, yet still had some bright moments, adding to his ever-growing category of ridiculous goals. With the lack of options behind him, he will be expected to play a lot of minutes this season, presenting him with the opportunity to add to his G/A tally and take on a big responsibility in this team. It is worth remembering though, that he hasn’t played since New Year’s Day, when he picked up a serious ankle injury. Whilst this may mean he takes a bit of time to get up to match speed, it may play into our hands in putting off potential suitors from placing bids this summer.
Louie Sibley - Footballers don’t become ‘bad’ overnight. With the famous tweet that often does the rounds, when he first burst on to the scene at Derby, Louie was compared to the likes of Jude Bellingham and Eberechi Eze. Having not been given much of an opportunity during his time at Oxford, Aaron Ramsey has the chance to extract the quality out of him that he’s previously shown; presenting Louie with a chance to shine but also a chance for Ramsey to enhance his managerial credentials. Whether we was part of the plans pre-embargo or not, he will have to play a fairly big role this season, either in covering for Tyler Goodrham or filling in in a deeper midfield role.
Marselino Ferdinan - Honestly, is he even contracted to the club?
In Tyler Goodrham, we have a player that has previously shone at this level, and as has been repeated with many others, will only be better off the back of two seasons in the Championship, standing us in pretty good stead in this position compared to the rest of the league, with there not being many other attacking midfielders at this level I would swap Tyler for.
However, the depth, or lack of, in this position is very worrying. In Louie Sibley, we have a player unproven for Oxford and who has struggled in two previous League One loans, with there not being any other options beyond him.
Overall, on balance, this probably places us about mid table for quality in this position, making it one of our weakest.
Right Wing
Stan Mills - The biggest talking point of the summer: will he stay or will he go? The likelihood is, that regardless of the embargo, Stan was always likely to leave the club this summer, given the talent he showed at the level above. He is a huge asset, and presents the club with an opportunity of a potential record sale, with most being profit, which will be very hard to say no to, especially given the financial circumstances. However, if we were able to keep Stan, this itself would go a long way to propelling us up the table. At his creative, athletic best, he has the potential to pose silly numbers in League One, but unfortunately I’d be very surprised if we saw this become a reality due to the transfer speculation surrounding him.
Jeon Jin-Woo - Jeon can count himself unlucky to play as little as he did in the second half of last season, with that largely being down to the quality of the player ahead of him, but also the tough ask of adapting from Korean football to the pace of the Championship. With that being said, he did post some impressive goalscoring numbers in South Korea, scoring 20 times in 45 games for Jeonbuk Hyundai. You can make what you like of the standard, but the reality is, his outright goalscoring numbers are much better than any other wide option at the club, and if this can be translated, like we’ve seen many East Asian footballers across the EFL do, then he could be a really exciting proposition to step up and replace Stan Mills.
Aidan Elliott-Wheeler - Pictured a lot in pre-season, Aidan enjoyed a very successful loan spell at Gateshead last season, where he was very highly thought of. Playing all across the right-hand side, Aidan is a Youth Team product who has been on the periphery of the First Team for a couple of years, featuring in a number of pre-season matches for the club in previous years. He may be a nice, versatile addition to the squad going into next season.
Overall, it’s as simple as if we can keep hold of Stan Mills, then we have the best right winger in the league, and one of the best players at that.
However, in the case that we don’t, the position does look significantly weaker given the lack of depth and the inexperience of the few options.
Given the fact he is unproven in this country, let alone league, I’d place Jeon Jin-Woo as a lower mid-table right winger, who, as of right now, is much inferior to any options that our potential rivals have in this position, for example the likes of Isiah Jones at Luton and Kyreece Lisbie at Reading.
Left Wing
Aidomo Emakhu - I’m investing my stocks in Aidomo this season. Given the price we paid for him (reportedly upwards of £1 million), and his experience at a high end Championship team in Millwall, I and the club, are expecting big things from him, and he certainly has the ability to deliver. He has publicly said he was very disappointed with the start to life he made at the U’s but it felt like he came into his own towards the back end of the season. With his pace and ball carrying ability, coupled with his capacity to go on both the inside and the outside of the full back, he is an exciting proposition, particularly at this level. If he can add goals to his game, he may not be far off what Stan Mills could be on the other side.
Siriki Dembele - The collective sigh when you here his name is noticeable, and as much as everyone, myself included, has heavily criticised him during his time here, I’m willing to give him this season as a final chance to prove his worth. At the very least, he is a good ball carrier and with his low centre of gravity, is able to weave in and out of players. His end product in the last two seasons has been nothing short of awful, but there is hope within the club, that with the step down in level, this may not be such a problem, although I for one, am sceptical of that. It is worth noting that in the 2020/21 season, at this level, he notched 21 G/A, so there is clearly something there that can be drawn out of him.
Leo Snowden - Leo is widely viewed as the best Youth Team product from this current crop of lads, with his goalscoring numbers at under-18 level being frankly absurd. He can play off the left or up top, but as an introduction to men’s football, throwing him in as a striker may be too big of an ask. If we can bed him into the side, and not over-use him like we did with Gatlin O’Donkor, he could be an exciting prospect over the next few seasons.
There is definitely more experienced and a higher standard of depth on the left wing than on the right, and if both Aidomo and Siriki can exploit League One, then it makes for a top 6 level left-hand side.
Aidomo Emakhu, could well be one of the best wingers at this level in a few months time, although it’s hard to make the case for that given he hasn’t played a minute in this league.
Beyond him, there are definitely some question marks, but at this moment in time, the likes of Barnsley’s Reyes Cleary and Sheffield Wednesday’s Louie Barry stand out ahead of our options.
Striker
Mark Harris - As a player, it’s fair to say Sparky splits opinion within the fanbase. Whatever your opinions of him are, you can’t deny the importance of his work rate and pressing, consistently putting in the hard yards for the better of the side. As a goal scorer though, he has proven to be very inconsistent, to say the least. He started his time at the club by soring 3 goals in his first 3 games, but then failing to do so again until New Year’s Day 2024, setting the tone for his Oxford career. He then did similar, in our first season in the Championship, notching 4 goals in his first 4 games, before failing to register another before Boxing Day. At best he is patchy, but the bigger concern is the number of big chances he misses when down on confidence. If he can knit it all together and put the ball in the back of the net a bit more frequently, say scoring a similar total to the one he set in 2023/24 of fifteen, then he can be considered a solid, well-rounded striker. However if his woes in front of goal continue, we may have a pretty big problem in this area.
Gatlin O’Donkor - You have to feel sorry for Gatlin. He may not be the greatest of strikers, but one thing’s for sure: he has been massively let down by the club. The reliance and over-use of him in the 2022/23 season under Karl Robinson has undoubtedly hindered his development, setting a marker for how not to embed a Youth Team player into the First Team. Young players can easily burn out, and this is likely what happened to Gatlin, with him being unable to hit the ground running in either of his loan spells at Barnet or Bristol Rovers. Regardless of that, he is going to have to be our back-up striker for the coming season, and he certainly has a point to prove to get his development and ultimately career, back on track.
This is probably the most worrying position in the squad, with the lack of an out-and-out goal scorer and a severe lack of experienced depth. Mark Harris is going to have a big responsibility on his shoulders and Gatlin O’Donkor will have to chip in with a couple of goals here and there, if we are going to be successful. As you can probably tell by the tone, I’m not particularly confident in either option. This, I imagine, would have been the area we were most urgently looking to address in the transfer market pre-embargo.
In comparison to the rest of the league, and in fairness to Mark Harris, he does have a decent goalscoring record in League One, recording 15 goals in 43 games in his last season at this level, as previously mentioned. This probably puts him around a mid table level striker in this division, getting into roughly half of the starting elevens in this league, in my books.
As for Gatlin O’Donkor, in all honesty, as of right now, he is probably one of the weakest strikers in the whole of this league, maybe finding his way into a couple of the newly promoted teams’ starting lineups, at a push.
Conclusion: What should our expectations be?
All in all, we have a really top end League One starting eleven, even if we were to lose two or three of them. Frustratingly, had we been able to sign players and strengthen the squad, and had Aaron Ramsey had a simple transition into management, I firmly believe that we could have easily challenged for automatic promotion, with playoffs being a minimum.
It’s certainly not all doom and gloom though. Let’s say we were to lose Michal Helik, Brian de Keersmaecker and Stan Mills, our starting lineup would likely be Cumming; Spencer, Long, Brown, Currie; Brannagan, McDonnell; Jin Woo, Goodrham, Emakhu; Harris. Whilst this isn’t as strong as it could have been, it is effectively the side that got promoted in 2023/24, with what I believe to be a better right back, left back, midfield, and right winger.
With that being considered, if injuries don’t hit us too bad, the embargo can be lifted going into January, and most crucially, Aaron Ramsey is able to show managerial credentials and prove himself to be a good appointment, then we can most definitely challenge for playoffs.
The problem with this is, as you’ll notice, there are a lot of ‘ifs.’ If just one of those things goes against us, it will be a big hit on our objectives. Probability would suggest, and with this being Oxford United, at least one of those will likely go against us at some point.
This therefore means, with the lack of squad depth, that we are probably looking at a season of mid-table nothingness, in all honesty, ranging from anywhere from tenth to fifteenth position, in my view.
With a range of unrealistic positivity and needless, over-exaggerating negativity doing the rounds, some will view this as an incredibly disappointing season and some would snap your hand off for mid-table now.
The reality is, that the off-the-pitch circumstances will have an impact; the strength of that impact is for now unclear though, and won’t be until we have seen this team play and have had some sufficient communication from the club.
Regardless, it will be more important than ever to get behind this team and manager, especially at inevitable ‘down’ points, if we want to achieve anything. Creating a ‘siege’ mentality at a time like this, has the potential to drive the team on to huge success. Equally, if things don’t improve higher-up, the potential negativity could be a huge hinderance. At the risk of sounding like a ‘happy clapper’, no matter your thoughts at board level, taking out that frustration on the team will only worsen the on-pitch situation and could lead to circumstances none of us want. This is needless to say though, because as we have seen over recent years, at times of struggle no one gets behind their team like we do, and this will be crucial going into this season. COYY!
Thanks for taking the time to read what is hopefully the start of some consistent articles throughout this upcoming season, albeit this one being slightly longer than I had expected!
