Football Season Guide

Oxford are coming from a remarkably turbulent 2017/18 season, that saw them appoint Pep Clotet as their manager and conduct a remarkable squad clear-out. They performed well early on but eventually started to struggle and parted ways with Clotet. What was to follow was a two-month period without a permanent boss before Karl Robinson took over and guided them to safety. The former MK Dons and Charlton manager has now had the summer to make the squad his own and has conducted yet another major squad clear-out. Several players returned to their parent clubs following the end of their loan deals, Ryan Ledson was finally allowed to leave and join Preston, while several players signed by Clotet were allowed to leave, some of them after hardly getting any playing time for Oxford, such as Ivo Pekalski and Agon Mehmeti. The list of summer arrivals includes players established at this level such as Tony McMahon, Samir Carruthers and Luke Garbutt, while in Jamie Mackie, Oxford have signed a player in the twilight of his career who has spent years playing in Championship and even the Premier League and could be a real asset. After having a ridiculously large squad last season, the U's have trimmed it a bit and have definitely signed quality. However, they have been constantly chopping and changing their squad for just over a year now and a lack of chemistry could definitely prove to be a problem for them, at least early in the season.