Football Season Guide

Oxford are coming from an excellent campaign that ultimately ended in frustration, as their direct promotion push was ended by the pandemic, while their play-off participation saw them edged out by Wycombe in the final. Still, it is hard to argue with the notion that the U's finally fully adopted Karl Robinson's philosophy during the previous campaign and they will now be looking to kick on and finally deliver promotion. They have kept the core of the squad together. The notable departures are the ones of Marcus Browne, who is back with parent club Middlesbrough, and the highly-rated Rob Dickie, who was signed from QPR. However, the U's were also very active in bringing in players - Sean Clare is expected to become an instant starter in defence, while Liam Kelly and Derick Osei Yaw are both also hoping to become regular starters. The overall impression regarding the U's is that they have not changed too much. A caveat is that someone will have to step up to compensate for Dickie's departure, but Robinson does have options in defence and it is not hard to see that happening. Unless they start shipping a lot of goals due to no longer having the defender among their ranks, the U's will be seen as one of the favourites for direct promotion.