New Players?

[A-Ro]

Are we allowed rumours on here?

If so I heard that we had signed Matt Tubbs, I have no reason to think it might be true and isn't he a bit old anyway?

If 28 is described as old for a footballer, I'd love to know where 39 year old Kevin Phillips is on the scale.

Lack of research on my part, he seems to have been around for ages.

[slappy]

Are we allowed rumours on here?

If so I heard that we had signed Matt Tubbs, I have no reason to think it might be true and isn't he a bit old anyway?

He's won promotions from the southern league, Conf south, Conf Prem, League 2 & now League 1! Quite impressive. (Although he did have Bournemouth and Bolton on his cv before dropping down to Dorchester Town, Salisbury, Crawley, and back to Bournemouth)

[Myles Francis]

Are we allowed rumours on here?

If so I heard that we had signed Matt Tubbs, I have no reason to think it might be true and isn't he a bit old anyway?

He's won promotions from the southern league, Conf south, Conf Prem, League 2 & now League 1! Quite impressive. (Although he did have Bournemouth and Bolton on his cv before dropping down to Dorchester Town, Salisbury, Crawley, and back to Bournemouth)

He's also best friends with Clarkey. On the downside, he has two years left on a fairly lucrative contract and Bournemouth paid £800k for him. I doubt they'd be prepared to take a huge hit on letting him go.

[Mooro]

http://www.scunthorpeunited-mad.co.uk/n ... ndex.shtml

an actual rumour not from twitter - doesn't say whether he plays left or right, and I can't be bothered to look, actually, yes I can.....he's a left-back, though he is also a former product of the Slumdon youth setup. Also sounds like he can play further forward too,

[OUFC4eva]

Kennedy is a decent left back with a good left foot - would be happy if it happened.

[theox]

Midfielder David Hunt from Crawley set to sign according to Radio Oxford twitter feed.

[theox]

Matt Sparrow, also recently of Crawley, now being linked. The source appears to be himself on Twitter.

[YF Dan]

That's just typical of Sparrow, always tweeting

[Mooro]

I'm getting confused!

Apart from our own youngsters, who have all previously been reported as having been offered/given/agreed/signed contracts, but have apparently only completed the whole thing today.....where are we with other signings?

Meades has actually signed, yes?
Kennedy has not signed, but reported as going to join us by fans sites in Scunthorpe and copied by OM
Hunt has not signed, but has been released from Crawley, and has been reported as going to join by BBC, Sky and OM, with various Twitter messages congratulating him on the move

Tubbs has been linked but only on fan sites, with us seemingly in competition with Rotherham and Crawley
Sparrow has been linked, purely on the back of a tweet he sent congratulating hunt
Torres has been linked, purely on the back of a tweet he sent congratulating hunt
Hunt's wife, mother, golf partner, milkman and dentist, plus a couple of dozen Crawley supporters will all also get linked, purely on the back of tweets sent congratulating hunt.....

[GodalmingYellow]

I'm getting confused!

Apart from our own youngsters, who have all previously been reported as having been offered/given/agreed/signed contracts, but have apparently only completed the whole thing today.....where are we with other signings?

Meades has actually signed, yes?
Kennedy has not signed, but reported as going to join us by fans sites in Scunthorpe and copied by OM
Hunt has not signed, but has been released from Crawley, and has been reported as going to join by BBC, Sky and OM, with various Twitter messages congratulating him on the move

Tubbs has been linked but only on fan sites, with us seemingly in competition with Rotherham and Crawley
Sparrow has been linked, purely on the back of a tweet he sent congratulating hunt
Torres has been linked, purely on the back of a tweet he sent congratulating hunt
Hunt's wife, mother, golf partner, milkman and dentist, plus a couple of dozen Crawley supporters will all also get linked, purely on the back of tweets sent congratulating hunt.....

Meades has indeed signed a 2 year deal.

The players signed for next season and beyond are:
Ryan Clarke
Michael Raynes
Jake Wright
James Constable
Deane Smalley
Sean Rigg
Alfie Potter
Andy Whing
Wayne Brown
Scott Davies
Ty Marsh
Max Crocombe
Jonathon Meades

And development squad extras who have signed for next season and beyond are:
Sam Long
David Lynn
Callum O'Dowda

And trainees who held a squad number last season who are still trainees with us:
James Roberts

The above is all based on official announcements. All other players with a squad number last season have now left the club.

[joepoolman]

Tubbs has been linked but only on fan sites, with us seemingly in competition with Rotherham and Crawley

OM reported that we were interested in Tubbs, I've also read (not sure if it was OM) he's turning down Rotherham because he wants to keep his family in the south, so it's between us and Crawley, OM did say we could probably only have him on loan.

Howe has been heavily linked but it seems he has plenty of offers, Sparrow did put out a slighty bizarre tweet about playing together with Hunt but I think some people got a bit carried away with that.

I've heard we're going to sign Plymouth left full-back/midfielder Onismor Bhasara.

[OUFC4eva]

Zimbabwean Onismor Bhasera is/was Plymouth's best player by a mile and looks
to be a very quick and skilful left back. A good age at 27 too.

I would be amazed if he came to Oxford.

[Radley Rambler]

Zimbabwean Onismor Bhasera is/was Plymouth's best player by a mile and looks
to be a very quick and skilful left back. A good age at 27 too.

I would be amazed if he came to Oxford.

Well, he has just spent some time at Plymouth who have hardly had a great set-up for the last two seasons so I wouldn't be amazed if he signed.

[Mooro]

Whether it is just the advent of Twitter coming to prominence, but this summer seems somehow different to previous ones in that: i) on one hand rumours seem to becoming founded on ever-more tenuous bases (ie. a dozen words in a tweet between two friends who happen to be footballers) (ii) yet the time-lapse between proposed deals (theoretically based on firmer foundations) being run in the OM and other national sources and being actually confirmed by the club appears to have grown massively.

For example, Sparrow and Torres are apparently coming here because of a smiley one of them put in a tweet to Hunt, yet even though he (and Kennedy) have been linked nationally and in the local press of both clubs as done deals for what seems like ages, neither are officially on board yet.

Now I'm sure in their case, it probably isn't as long as it seems, particularly as terms have to be agreed etc, the club do appear to be being overly cautious about making announcements. How many weeks(months?) was it since we were being told that Crocombe and Marsh were being offered and/or had agreed deals, and that offers had been made to (& agreed with?) the three scholars, so why has it been announced/re-announced today?
Likewise, it seemed like an age between news of Davies agreeing a deal and the official announcement while the announcement for Meades took so long since that was apparently settled that I'd begun to assume that it was off.

Is it any actually any different to previous summers, or have I just been spending too long on the other side........?

[OUFC4eva]

I should have added that Bhasera has been linked with moves to League One
clubs Bristol City, Walsall and Shrewsbury so I would be amazed if he came to us
but happy nonetheless.He is supposed to be leaving PAFC this week.

Hopefully Joe is in the know.