Not addressed to me but I'm fairly neutral on the moves so far so will speak up.
I thought we were outclassed in the play offs, and several times against the top sides last season. I thought Karl spoke well after Blackpool, and I agreed with his assessment of where we fell short. All seemed positive for next year.
I dont see any evidence that we have learnt from the shortcomings or adapted our approach. We have signed an injury prone player falling down the leagues, and three people who played for Oxford before. This transfer window couldn't be more Karl Robinson's Oxford if it were a parody written by Kip.
It has served us relatively well in the past, I grant you. I've just dared to speak up against Mr Egg, so maybe I shall now be cast as pessimist in chief, but I don't think that's the case. Most Oxford fans feel we are falling just short of where we want to be. Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. And in football, if you stand still you fall behind - based on what I saw last year, I worry that whilst we remain ahead of many L1 clubs we are starting to fall a fair bit behind some others, and not necessarily just on budget. Not to mention, I think Atkinson will be a bigger loss than some seem to. His ability to carry the ball out of defence was a significant option for us when our midfield was losing the battle and couldn't get open.
What I'd like honestly like to see is a couple of players in the mould of Dougall at Blackpool, who can add a bit of bite without turning us in to cloggers. That sort of thing would add a new aspect to our game, because we have seen opposition players label us a soft touch after beating us.
A couple of such additions in early/mid twenties, who have done the job for 30+ starts a season in L2 or similar and were chomping at the bit to step up, and I'd be a whole lot more optimistic.