Transfer Window Summer 2025 Transfer Window Thread

[Jaboysmith]

Transfer Rumours In
​

Player​	Current Club​	Link or Source​
Kasey Palmer​	Hull City​	YF ITK​
Ethan Erhahon​	Lincoln City​	Football World Article​
Onel Hernandez​	Norwich City​	Instragram Post​
Davis Keillor-Dunn​	Barnsley​	Football World Article​
Callum O'Dowda​	Cardiff​	Scotchegg​
James Dornelly​	Peterborough​	Football League World​
Jamal Lowe​	Sheffield Wednesday​	EFL Analysis​

Transfer Rumours Out​

Player​	Interested Club​	Link or Source​
Tyler Goodrham​	Burnley, Southampton, Middlesbrough, Coventry​	Football World Article, Bigboy​
Stuart Findlay​	Hearts, Kilmarnock​	Daily Record​

 

[Brahma]

You have to wonder how we finished 17th after such a “horror show”

Good manager, as you know.

 

[Jster]

Loan to buy seems odd given he only has a year left on his Oxford contract. Is the loan for less than a season then?

 

[Northstandboy]

Loan to buy seems odd given he only has a year left on his Oxford contract. Is the loan for less than a season then?

I bet they are loaning him and paying a low x% of his wages and will buy him for pittance the season after next.

 

[tatabanya]

Good manager, as you know.

Played a huge part and the club deserve credit for the decisions that they made there too. The scattergun and relative low-cost nature of our business last summer meant it was unlikely to be 10s across the board and of course mistakes were made, but Oxford don't finish 17th in the Championship after a horror show summer

 

[JayOx88]

I'm not sure I understand the idea that Kilmarnock have taken the mick out of us with Findlay for the past 2 seasons - being lumbered with him is a situation entirely of our own making. Giving him a four year contract was absolutely insane, and if he was an attractive proposition for other clubs there would be a bigger queue to take him off our hands. It speaks volumes about how bad the deal is that Kilmarnock subsidising a tiny proportion of his wages has been the best (if not only) option to us for the past two seasons. We don't really hold any cards here, why should Kilmarnock not get him as cheaply as possible? If they're the only ones who have wanted to take him off us, why wouldn't they start by offering low and test how desperate we were to get some of his wages off the books? It seems that it was either those loan deals or nothing at all.

 

[Taff Ewe]

How much do you think Tyler is worth now?

Honestly, it's difficult, which is why we need to get him maxxing out for us. If he has a good full productive season (say 18 goal contributions) we are looking £16m plus.

At the moment £8m seems wild as he is just showing potential but not the hard numbers, so possibly £5m at best. It just makes sense to see where the season takes us to push up his value. It shouldn't decrease (barring an unlucky injury)

 

[Brahma]

Played a huge part and the club deserve credit for the decisions that they made there too. The scattergun and relative low-cost nature of our business last summer meant it was unlikely to be 10s across the board and of course mistakes were made, but Oxford don't finish 17th in the Championship after a horror show summer

The club do finish 17th in the Championship regardless of a horror transfer 12 months; based on the Board removing Des and popping Rowett in charge.

Lifted from my post in March 2025 (below).

2024 recruitment, Edwards, Goodwin (£400K), Dale, Kioso, Cumming, Matete, Burey between Jan and June.

July 2024 to Jan 2025, Knightbridge, Vaulks, Sibbo, Currie (£fee), El Miz, Placheta, Ingram, Phillips, Marselino, ter Avest, Dembele (£1m), Romeny (£1.6m), Ebiowei, Scarlett, Nelson and Matos. Late January saw Bradshaw, Helik and Mills.

We can now add Bradshaw to the mis-firing list of recruitment, whereby, he may now be surplus to requirements. I liked him by the way but I will struggle to change a fair few minds on that one.

Appreciate not all recruitment works but that list is concerning, with the exceptions of Jamie C, Valuks, Currie - who didn't contribute to our 17th place finish, Placheta, Nelson, Helik and Matos. Yes I know Dembs scored two very important goals; let's give some credit to Rowett for persevering because plenty of our fanbase had well and truly given up on him too.

I really don't get the defence of our recruitment. It's been pretty disappointing.

 

[Jster]

I bet they are loaning him and paying a low x% of his wages and will buy him for pittance the season after next.

But his contract with us is over then, so no need to buy him, can just sign him as a free agent!

 

[Royalstandard74]

I'm not sure I understand the idea that Kilmarnock have taken the mick out of us with Findlay for the past 2 seasons - being lumbered with him is a situation entirely of our own making. Giving him a four year contract was absolutely insane, and if he was an attractive proposition for other clubs there would be a bigger queue to take him off our hands. It speaks volumes about how bad the deal is that Kilmarnock subsidising a tiny proportion of his wages has been the best (if not only) option to us for the past two seasons. We don't really hold any cards here, why should Kilmarnock not get him as cheaply as possible? If they're the only ones who have wanted to take him off us, why wouldn't they start by offering low and test how desperate we were to get some of his wages off the books? It seems that it was either those loan deals or nothing at all.

I agree in some parts, but you admit that Kilmarnock have had an important player for them on the cheap and have continued to look after their own financial interests, although the Hearts move would also be a loan, the fact that Kilmarnock continued to benefit from our bad purchase, gives me a certain amount of pleasure if they feel Findlay will be a big miss for them next season.

 

[tatabanya]

The club do finish 17th in the Championship regardless of a horror transfer 12 months; based on the Board removing Des and popping Rowett in charge.

Lifted from my post in March 2025 (below).

2024 recruitment, Edwards, Goodwin (£400K), Dale, Kioso, Cumming, Matete, Burey between Jan and June.

July 2024 to Jan 2025, Knightbridge, Vaulks, Sibbo, Currie (£fee), El Miz, Placheta, Ingram, Phillips, Marselino, ter Avest, Dembele (£1m), Romeny (£1.6m), Ebiowei, Scarlett, Nelson and Matos. Late January saw Bradshaw, Helik and Mills.

We can now add Bradshaw to the mis-firing list of recruitment, whereby, he may now be surplus to requirements. I liked him by the way but I will struggle to change a fair few minds on that one.

Appreciate not all recruitment works but that list is concerning, with the exceptions of Jamie C, Valuks, Currie - who didn't contribute to our 17th place finish, Placheta, Nelson, Helik and Matos. Yes I know Dembs scored two very important goals; let's give some credit to Rowett for persevering because plenty of our fanbase had well and truly given up on him too.

I really don't get the defence of our recruitment. It's been pretty disappointing.

I get that there is quite a lot of bad in there, but that's par for the course really and to be expected to an extent given the volume of business. I also think one season is far too early to be judging a lot of the signigns especially with a fair few likely to be around the squad next season. Helik is maybe one of the best and most impactful signings I can remember us making while the likes of Vaulks, Kioso, HtA and Dembele all plays significant if not outstanding roles in our good form under Rowett. We're likely to do much less now in terms of those brought in and you'd hope that we can be more selective, but there's a whole world between very good and horror show where I'd argue our recruitment sits. Some very good, some very bad and a lot in between.

 

[OX11yellow]

On the market.

I was told he was moving to a house down the road from where he lives now.

 

[Taff Ewe]

As much as it would hurt (more so for Cam) making 14million+ for two players would catapult us into another level of competition.

We’re losing out to clubs like Stoke, QPR, and PNE fairly often. Being able to raise the funds by x amount would allow us to look at more premium targets and be competitive

and they are no better than us right now despite spending huge amounts and being in Champ for donkeys. Their model is not one to follow.

Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth.....yes. Which is to max out the player as much as you can and sell on for an astronomical amount.......simple. Which means you keep Tyler for the moment.

Nobody will offer £7m for Cam, he did not really reproduce anything near what he did at L1. Maybe the injury has held him back a lot and it was a big step up, lets hope next year will be better.

 

[Whingit]

The club do finish 17th in the Championship regardless of a horror transfer 12 months; based on the Board removing Des and popping Rowett in charge.

Lifted from my post in March 2025 (below).

2024 recruitment, Edwards, Goodwin (£400K), Dale, Kioso, Cumming, Matete, Burey between Jan and June.

July 2024 to Jan 2025, Knightbridge, Vaulks, Sibbo, Currie (£fee), El Miz, Placheta, Ingram, Phillips, Marselino, ter Avest, Dembele (£1m), Romeny (£1.6m), Ebiowei, Scarlett, Nelson and Matos. Late January saw Bradshaw, Helik and Mills.

We can now add Bradshaw to the mis-firing list of recruitment, whereby, he may now be surplus to requirements. I liked him by the way but I will struggle to change a fair few minds on that one.

Appreciate not all recruitment works but that list is concerning, with the exceptions of Jamie C, Valuks, Currie - who didn't contribute to our 17th place finish, Placheta, Nelson, Helik and Matos. Yes I know Dembs scored two very important goals; let's give some credit to Rowett for persevering because plenty of our fanbase had well and truly given up on him too.

I really don't get the defence of our recruitment. It's been pretty disappointing.

There's a middle ground where factors such as the transfer embargo and coming up through the playoffs, coupled with the fact that we were stone dead favourites to go straight back down almost certainly humstrung our summer recruitment.

At the same time a few mistakes were certainly made, it's whether or not we panicked and signed players because we needed numbers or whether Waldron's judgement was bad.

I expect players to improve as they've had time to settle, I'm sure we'll see more from Ter-Avest (who I thought was decent this season anyway) and hopeful we can get more from Romney.

Waldron is not God, I'm sure if the guy who Leeds took from us was still here then our recruitment would have had less mistakes, but I think Ed is clearly competent and the more established we become, the better the recruitment will become. We needed an overhaul last summer but now we can be more selective.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Yes in principle, a comparison to Manchester United is quite fair.

Man United - buy over the odds, poor recruitment and then can't get rid of the players who then, rightly, sit on their contracts.

Oxford United, buy over the odds in some cases, poor recruitment and then can't get rid of the players, who then, rightly, sit on their contracts.

If our recruitment is poor how come we are in the Championship despite being probably the smallest club there?

 

[werthersoriginal]

Spot on
Cumming, Vaulks, Kioso , Ter Avest, Helik, Matos, Shemmy, helped us stay up
Even Sibley scored a very important goal, Dembele scored 2 very imortant goals.
Staying up 17th with a relatively low budget was not easy...

Indeed, without those Sibley and Dembele goals we would have gone down

 

[The Voice Of Reason]

SF and cue the abuse

Could be he signs a 1 year extension
And we do a loan with commitment to buy at end of season

This maybe to suit hearts and any money regs in Scotland

 

[Brahma]

If our recruitment is poor how come we are in the Championship despite being probably the smallest club there?

Because a large proportion of the squad that won promotion, was here before Ed Waldron. If you are referring to us still being in the Championship as a result of Ed's Summer 2025 recruitment, then you just need to look back at the list above and/or recognise what a marvellous manager we have.

Thank you.

 

[holdsteady]

SF and cue the abuse

Could be he signs a 1 year extension
And we do a loan with commitment to buy at end of season

This maybe to suit hearts and any money regs in Scotland

Why would we do that though?

 

[SteMerritt]

Why would we do that though?

Part of me would love the club to give SF a year extension, just to troll @RyanioBirdio...

 

[Whingit]

Because a large proportion of the squad that won promotion, was here before Ed Waldron. If you are referring to us still being in the Championship as a result of Ed's Summer 2025 recruitment, then you just need to look back at the list above and/or recognise what a marvellous manager we have.

Thank you.

He's been our recruitment guy since about 2020?

 

[RyanioBirdio]

Karl Robinson ploughing through all obstacles

 

[BicesterU]

There's a middle ground

Sorry, there's not. Everything discussed here is either brilliant or abject. No-one here wants a consensus of any kind. It's just battle after battle.

 

[tatabanya]

Because a large proportion of the squad that won promotion, was here before Ed Waldron. If you are referring to us still being in the Championship as a result of Ed's Summer 2025 recruitment, then you just need to look back at the list above and/or recognise what a marvellous manager we have.

Thank you.

But what about the lists of players who weren't here before Waldron took up the main recruitment role who have played a big part in our success last season?

Cumming
Beadle
Leigh
Bennett
Rodrigues
Dale
Stevens
Harris
Mceachran

And do we not give him some credit for his role in hiring Des, firing Des and hiring Rowett?

Think there are plenty of reasons to criticise Waldron and wouldn't pretend otherwise, but surely you can see that it hasn't been all bad? You don't go from being at the bottom end of League One to Championship safety with bad recruitment.

 

[Jon-ioualways]

Sorry, there's not. Everything discussed here is either brilliant or abject. No-one here wants a consensus of any kind. It's just battle after battle.

No it's not. You're utterly wrong.

 

[The Voice Of Reason]

Why would we do that though?

To secure a fee if he's ooc in summer unless a Jan deal is done then it's too late for fee. Just a suggestion

 

[Chippy]

Personally I’d say don’t let any club have Findlay on the cheap, either they pay the majority of his wages or we play hard ball and he stays and is just an unnamed squad player. I don’t get why we keep letting him go on loan for a reputed pittance of a contribution. Yes you can argue every little helps, but if it is only a little then simply play tough and wait to see if a bigger offer comes in, especially this early in the window. We agreed early last summer too.

Hearts will also be aware of how little Kilmarnock have reputedly been paying (tho no idea if that’s true or not). Either make them pay all or a high proportion of his wages, or he goes nowhere. Maybe that would then force him to take a small pay off to get out of his contract and play football and be in Scotland for the next 12 months where he wants to be, or he stays here. Or is there some ridiculous clause in his contract (probably!) that prevents us doing this?

 

[Brahma]

But what about the lists of players who weren't here before Waldron took up the main recruitment role who have played a big part in our success last season?

Cumming
Beadle
Leigh
Bennett
Rodrigues
Dale
Stevens
Harris
Mceachran

And do we not give him some credit for his role in hiring Des, firing Des and hiring Rowett?

Think there are plenty of reasons to criticise Waldron and wouldn't pretend otherwise, but surely you can see that it hasn't been all bad? You don't go from being at the bottom end of League One to Championship safety with bad recruitment.

Ed took his new title, Head of Football operations in July 2024, Ed led Head of Recruitment from March 2023. Mark Thomas was the recruitment 'guy' or main 'guy' prior. Ed was of course in that department and also had some time in Bordeaux.

When I post, I try to be fair and reasonable. Of course it's not as black and white as I have presented it and there is a middle view. That middle view will be the accurate one.

How about the players who were here prior to Ed's recruitment role? Cameron, Sam, Moore, Brown, TG - all of which were basically Championship starters.

Yep, he got the decision right about Des, both when he arrived and when it was time for him to be sacked.

I won't labour the point about the signings any further, I've listed them above from Jan 2024 to Jan 2025; it's for other people to decide if they worked or didn't. That's all subjective.

I am prepared to accept Ben Davis, Djvan Anderson and Yanic probably weren't his signings ;-)

 

[holdsteady]

To secure a fee if he's ooc in summer unless a Jan deal is done then it's too late for fee. Just a suggestion

Why wou;d they not just pay a fee now then? Plus what if they pulled out? We would be stuck with him going out on loan to Kilmarnock for a pittance again.

 

[yellowbow]

Haven’t we got a new head of recruitment now? Someone from Wycombe. I thought Ed had moved to a slightly different role.

Edit: Just seen your previous post Brahma!

 

[Scotchegg]

Personally I’d say don’t let any club have Findlay on the cheap, either they pay the majority of his wages or we play hard ball and he stays and is just an unnamed squad player. I don’t get why we keep letting him go on loan for a reputed pittance of a contribution. Yes you can argue every little helps, but if it is only a little then simply play tough and wait to see if a bigger offer comes in, especially this early in the window. We agreed early last summer too.

Hearts will also be aware of how little Kilmarnock have reputedly been paying (tho no idea if that’s true or not). Either make them pay all or a high proportion of his wages, or he goes nowhere. Maybe that would then force him to take a small pay off to get out of his contract and play football and be in Scotland for the next 12 months where he wants to be, or he stays here. Or is there some ridiculous clause in his contract (probably!) that prevents us doing this?

We have a choice of paying him 40-50-60% of his wages and letting him play elsewhere, or 100% of his wages not to play for us.

Why p**s away a couple of hundred thousand from our budget just to play hardball?