Football Season Guide

Oxford’s first season back in the Championship for 25 years ended up being a successful one as they achieved their main target of staying in the division, but it wasn’t without some difficulty along the way. After a solid start to the campaign, cracks began to appear and the U’s plummeted towards the relegation zone. Popular manager Des Buckingham, who had led the club to promotion, was regrettably let go in December. Gary Rowett was a solid and dependable replacement for Buckingham, with a respected reputation at this level for making teams tough to beat with his pragmatic style of play. In fact, Oxford weren’t beaten in his first nine Championship games at the helm (W5 D4 L0), before the “new manager bounce” eventually wore off and there was a natural levelling off in results. An impressive win over now-promoted Sunderland clinched safety for the U’s before the final day of the season. It’s been a challenging summer already for Rowett. A pre-season tour to Indonesia has brought about injuries to several standout performers from the previous campaign including the club’s player of the season Ciaron Brown and his likely starting centre-back partner Michal Helik. Will Vaulks, Przemyslaw Placheta and Ole Romeny are another three regular starters who are carrying problems. There has been little transfer activity in terms of incomings or outgoings. The most notable departures were in midfield as Ruben Rodrigues and Idris El Mizouni were let go. They have been replaced by youngster Luke Harris from Fulham on loan and Dutch defensive-midfielder Brian De Keersmaecker. Versatile defender Brodie Spencer also arrives from Huddersfield with Championship experience.