Transfer News Transfer targets summer 2019

[Big Ronaldo]

To my mind, I was under the impression that Baptiste was not fit to start just yet.
We really should not be throwing this lad straight back in, especially after what happened last year.
He will play his part for sure this term but I would hope that sense prevails and we just ease him in.

 

[holdsteady]

You know the announcement of his signing is going to drag out, only fitting after how much it’s been talked about over the summer. He will only actually be here a bit longer than the months of chat about his transfer.

It will be nice to finally get him through the door as every body will be helpful this season (especially if it’s a cheap deal)with us looking like running a smallish squad, even if it’s only for half a season, but it’s very much a case of on to the next couple of signings pronto as we have a couple of gaping holes to fill, those will be the additions that define our season.

 

[greatunclekip]

Whos going to bet on no new faces tonight?

 

[Maurice Earp]

Whos going to bet on no new faces tonight?

You are???????????

 

[BarrySpang]

Remember that time difference will play it’s part here. Columbus are 5 hours behind us and will no doubt want to announce him first so it was never going to be an early announcement our end even if the paperwork has been completed.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

In fact, given that in his pre-match preview KR has said that due to the lack of depth in the squad he cannot risk any injuries to key players, I think not only will there be no new faces on show I suspect some of the existing ones won't get much of a run-out (if at all) either. Expect to see Napa, Lofthouse etc again.

 

[Yellow Mustard]

. Eastwood.
Long. Dickie. Mous. Ruffels.
Brannagan. Gorrin. Baptiste.
Whyte. Henry. Fosu.

As things stand, if everyone was fit, and (god forbid) we don't make the additions we need, that would be my starting lineup.
4-3-3.
In this formation, with whats currently available to us, and if (again, god forbid) we don't sign a striker, I'd like to see Henry play the central striker role, he's strong on the ball, can link up play intelligently, and is a good finisher, and him, Whyte and Fosu, could switch roles throughout the game if need be, to keep the defence guessing.

With Long and Mous in defence though, we'll be very vulnerable, but if Cadden does come in on this dodgy deal, on principle, I wouldn't use him as anything other than emergency cover, regardless of how good he is, I'd only want players in my starting line up who are truly committed, and not just here to keep themselves ticking over for a few months, sorry, call me old fashioned, but thats just the way I feel.

IF, however, he comes in on a season long loan, I'd be more prepared to give him a chance, and would start him in place of Long, although, regardless of length of loan, he still chose the MLS club over us, so we owe him nothing.

That defence is a relegation one.

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

At first the haters said Long was a solid right back but didn’t have enough going forward for a successful team, now he’s a weak link defensively which will make a team relegated. And here’s me thinking he came in to the team at the end of last season and shored up the defence, in a team that went on a winning run. But hey, why go on the evidence of facts, history and past evidence right?

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Long is not exactly our most pressing problem - to say the least - but IF Cadden signs and IF he is a right back (which, judging from the chap from Motherwell's post is arguable) and IF he is a better player then you'd play him surely? That would free Long up to play in central defence although in all honesty I can't remember seeing him play there so wouldn't know whether he was an upgrade on Mousinho.
Long certainly strengthened our defence last season, and anyone who said he didn't is ignoring both the stats and the evidence of their own eyes. Of course, we were awful down that side before he started playing there so it was from a pretty low base.

 

[n1]

Anyone else find it strange that we only appear to be chasing one target in each position at any one time? ie. bid rejected for a centre half...move onto the next target?

Also, for all the panic over strikers, there are still plenty of names available. Surridge, Conor McAleny, Callum Lang, Omar Bogle to name some that immediately come to mind. Maybe they'd be loans, maybe they're not available but if we have the kind of money that we were prepared to pay Sinclair then surley one of these kind of players should be possible.

 

[Northernyellow]

At first the haters said Long was a solid right back but didn’t have enough going forward for a successful team, now he’s a weak link defensively which will make a team relegated. And here’s me thinking he came in to the team at the end of last season and shored up the defence, in a team that went on a winning run. But hey, why go on the evidence of facts, history and past evidence right?

That’s not true.
Quite a few people (including me) have pointed out that, while Long did a very good job at the end of last season, he doesn’t have the pace, or frankly the ability, to last a full season if we hope to be a mid/upper level L1 team.
There are no ‘haters’ of Long on this forum. Just quite a few people who are OUFC supporters, and who don’t think he’s quite good enough for where we are/want to be. He’s a perfectly OK squad player, who could come on for 10-15 games a season and do a decent job. But not much more than that. Put it this way, if we gave him a free tomorrow, who do you think would be more likely to come in for him? Cheltenham or, say, Reading?....
And as for your entirely inappropriate choice of words (as someone else has just pointed out) it might be worth you remembering that this is a forum about football, and is not supposed to be taken that seriously.......

 

[Paul Cannell]

Last summer it wasn’t the inactivity which proved disastrous, it was the horrendous recruitment itself. We broke the bank to sign Samir Carruthers and Ricky Holmes, two mates of Karl’s. We broke the bank to sign Jamie Hanson on a long term deal, a player who had been on the club’s radar long before even Pep turned up and turned out to be not very good.

There was no strategy, no synergy and no concept of value.

It is nothing short of a shambles that our squad is as thin as it is now, but I’m happy that we seem to have learnt some lessons and aren’t bending over to every agent request.

The irony is that the people bemoaning the repeat of last season are the ones asking the club the ‘spend’ and make the same mistakes again.

I have heard enough from people at the club that there is no sinister dealings here and that money will be invested in the playing staff.

Fans will continue to panic, but so long as the decision makers at the club don’t then that’s already 1-0 to this summer over last.

Thank you. I don't think anyone with a brain can argue with your first para.

I tend to agree with most of the rest, however my major current concern is apparent lack of focus on the 2 areas (I think I may have mentioned them): CB and striker where I believe we need 4 players, 2 of whom should be experienced, to prosper. Whatever Cadden is, he's not the answer to any of our important questions and it appears to me that KR is alone between a whole set of contervailing seas, as the Bishop of Dunkeld almost wrote.

I'll take your 1-0 for today. Hope it'll stay better by the end of the transfer windows.

 

[Mystery Yellow]

Long did a job at right back when we needed him too as McMahon & Hanson wasn’t up to that job but it is a area we need improvement this season as Long is average at best imo, he’s good enough as a back up to come into the team when we’ve got injuries/form to others as he’ll give his all

 

[Scotchegg]

Good morning, Positive Fairy; do you have any comments on Mr Bird's description of the recruitment situation or are you just going "La la la la, my opinion's worth more than an expert's"? I think that, as Tigger's representative on earth, your boy may lose some credibility if you don't make a vrapid response.

Sorry for the delay, us positive fairies have been extra busy in light of Boris becoming new PM!

Mr Bird raised some valid points about the need to have someone above KR to pull the deals together, but was also a bit dismissive of the deals we have done. Whyte, Sykes, Gorrin and Fosu were all wanted by other teams, yet we managed to get them on board and on decent deals. We also brought in the likes of Browne and Sinclair who may have only been loan deals but were both solid on the way Oxford look to develop players, and on Robinson's passion, which may not be well thought of here but does get some real credit within the game.

We know last summer didn't work out well, but if it wasn't for the injuries to Carrathurs and Eastwood (neither could be expected), Holmes (who was expected to be good for 30+ games) and Hall (was always a bit of a gamble), then the situation could have been very different.

So I will of course pass on your concerns to Mr Tigger over a hot chocolate tonight and give him your best. However I think it's fair to say that "facts" and "opinions" can merge into each other at times, and I'm sure that whilst things could be a lot better, they could also be a helluva lot worse!

 

[bunk]

what about Gorrin?
what sort of performance can we expect from him.
he scored a cracking goal for us on saturday against Queens Pork Bangers.

I'm a bit hesitant to go all in on Gorrin as it's such a small sample size. He made 24 appearances but only became a fixture in the side after the winter break.He may be brilliant, then again he may have simply been part of a side that clicked and hit a good run of form.

Prior to January he was barely near a Motherwell side sitting 9th in the league, 7 league appearances and only 3 of those were starts. I'd have said that the general consensus at that point was that we'd just cut our losses and release him.

After the winter break? It looked like we'd signed Busquets and our league form from then until the end of the season was 3rd behind Celtic and Rangers.

Those are two pretty extreme points but along with players like Turnbull, Hastie and Ariybi Gorrin played a part in turning our season around even if he wasn't particularly flash or showy in his contribution.

I don't know if the first half of the season was about injury or it was simply a case of adjustment, it may even have been our manager trying to work out what to do with him but by the end of the season he was probably one of a handful of out of contract players that we'd have been genuinely keen to keep (along with Hastie, Aldred and Ariyibi) rather than just offering an extension as a token gesture.

He slotted in to the holding role of a midfield 3 perfectly. He let Turnbull do the things that won him FWYPOTY and allowed Allan Campbell to be Allan Campbell. Basically Gorrin controlled the tempo, was efficient with his passing, recycled the ball and generally held the midfield together while cementing folk in 50/50s. You didn't really notice just how key he was until we went into a game with him missing through suspension.

I think it really depends who he's got playing alongside him in terms of how effective he'll be for you. With us he had some of the best young players in Scotland in Turnbull, Campbell and Hastie. If you don't have players who will complement what he does then you'll have a Spanish guy who plays 5-10 yard passes and gets booked a lot.

Having said that watching him chuck himself into tackles on a booking is quite the thrill for you all to look forward to.

Edit: I wouldn't hold my breath for more goals though.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

I'm a bit hesitant to go all in on Gorrin as it's such a small sample size. He made 24 appearances but only became a fixture in the side after the winter break.He may be brilliant, then again he may have simply been part of a side that clicked and hit a good run of form.

Prior to January he was barely near a Motherwell side sitting 9th in the league, 7 league appearances and only 3 of those were starts. I'd have said that the general consensus at that point was that we'd just cut our losses and release him.

After the winter break? It looked like we'd signed Busquets and our league form from then until the end of the season was 3rd behind Celtic and Rangers.

Those are two pretty extreme points but along with players like Turnbull, Hastie and Ariybi Gorrin played a part in turning our season around even if he wasn't particularly flash or showy in his contribution.

I don't know if the first half of the season was about injury or it was simply a case of adjustment, it may even have been our manager trying to work out what to do with him but by the end of the season he was probably one of a handful of out of contract players that we'd have been genuinely keen to keep (along with Hastie, Aldred and Ariyibi) rather than just offering an extension as a token gesture.

He slotted in to the holding role of a midfield 3 perfectly. He let Turnbull do the things that won him FWYPOTY and allowed Allan Campbell to be Allan Campbell. Basically Gorrin controlled the tempo, was efficient with his passing, recycled the ball and generally held the midfield together while cementing folk in 50/50s. You didn't really notice just how key he was until we went into a game with him missing through suspension.

I think it really depends who he's got playing alongside him in terms of how effective he'll be for you. With us he had some of the best young players in Scotland in Turnbull, Campbell and Hastie. If you don't have players who will complement what he does then you'll have a Spanish guy who plays 5-10 yard passes and gets booked a lot.

Having said that watching him chuck himself into tackles on a booking is quite the thrill for you all to look forward to.

Edit: I wouldn't hold my breath for more goals though.

Don’t worry mate, we just got shot of a defensive midfielder who not only dived in like a mad man on bookings, but managed to pick up cards for smashing the ball away in celebration needlessly, and who also got sent off for running onto the pitch after he’d been subbed, as well as picking up another red around the same sort of time for a two footed challenge he just didn’t need to make. After that guy, Gorrin sounds like he’s going to appear laid back by comparison.

Interesting you mention Gboly Ariyibi. We were linked with him several times in the past but it never seemed to come off - he was raised about two miles from our current stadium so is also a local lad. Always thought he looked raw in the sense that there wasn’t much of a final ball or composure in the final third, but he was flipping quick and couldn’t half drive past people into the final third.

 

[Left Wing Cross]

That defence is a relegation one.

Given that 3 out of 4 of that back line helped keep us up last season, I guess this is all about Mous.

 

[bunk]

Don’t worry mate, we just got shot of a defensive midfielder who not only dived in like a mad man on bookings, but managed to pick up cards for smashing the ball away in celebration needlessly, and who also got sent off for running onto the pitch after he’d been subbed, as well as picking up another red around the same sort of time for a two footed challenge he just didn’t need to make. After that guy, Gorrin sounds like he’s going to appear laid back by comparison.

Interesting you mention Gboly Ariyibi. We were linked with him several times in the past but it never seemed to come off - he was raised about two miles from our current stadium so is also a local lad. Always thought he looked raw in the sense that there wasn’t much of a final ball or composure in the final third, but he was flipping quick and couldn’t half drive past people into the final third.

Ha! In fairness a lot of it is just Gorrin's style. He just seems to go to ground a lot to win the ball. There's no malice or cynicism it just means you spend an amount of the game watching him through your fingers.

I noticed Gboly welcoming AG to Oxford in the comments of his IG announcement and it took me a while to join the dots. I had no idea he was from that neck of the woods, he was billed as a US u23 when we got him on loan from Forest and at the time his IG stories were coming from Nigeria.

He's largely the same as you describe. The final ball could definitely improve and if he could actually shoot then he wouldn't be training with Forest's u23s (or get papped out on loan to Motherwell).

Along with his pace and directness his footwork is sensational and he's hunners of fun to watch which is probably why he showed up as well when he was dropped in to our side midway through a season that was pretty hard work in terms of the football on show.

 

[Dolly]

I would be happy to see Long at RB. All ways seems decent to me and never lets us down.

 

[windmill]

Anyone else find it strange that we only appear to be chasing one target in each position at any one time? ie. bid rejected for a centre half...move onto the next target?

Also, for all the panic over strikers, there are still plenty of names available. Surridge, Conor McAleny, Callum Lang, Omar Bogle to name some that immediately come to mind. Maybe they'd be loans, maybe they're not available but if we have the kind of money that we were prepared to pay Sinclair then surley one of these kind of players should be possible.

Would McAleny be prepared to come South once again?