players next season

[Kernow Yellow]

The radio silence regarding Chapman is also intruiging - I would have expected him to repay the club's faith and patience by signing pretty soon. The only thing I can imagine is that we've tried to pull a fast one by offering reduced terms.

Or perhaps Chapman is hoping to get a deal elsewhere for a fresh start? Must be difficult trying to carry on as you were prior to the jail term.

Maybe. But it'd be strange logic. Oxford fans and staff have been extraordinarily understanding of what happened, and really got behind him during his long road back into the team. We're now all willing him to re-sign and kick on to the next level with us. If he moved, he'd have to win over a new set of fans who would be aware of his past but might be more sceptical about it than we are. Given the choice, I'd say re-signing for us would be a much shrewder move - and I do think that he owes us some loyalty, given how things turned out it would have been very easy for the club to have ripped up his contract, but they (rightly, IMHO) stuck by him.

Surely we didn't rip up his contract because we saw him as a valuable footballing asset? It's not as if we continued paying him while he was behind bars. It was shrewd business, nothing more. If we hadn't rated his ability or attitude, I'm sure we wouldn't have kept him on. And maybe he doesn't feel he owes the club too much - they seemed to be keen to keep farming him out on loan last season, and only when our injury crisis deepened did we give him a chance ourselves. Then even when he was performing consistently towards the end of the season he found himself on the bench more often than he might have hoped.

I'd love to see him stay, and he does have a good rapport with the fans after all he's been through, but if other clubs are now offering him more cash / better prospects, good luck to the guy. That's football these days, sadly.

[Radley Rambler]

Or perhaps Chapman is hoping to get a deal elsewhere for a fresh start? Must be difficult trying to carry on as you were prior to the jail term.[/quote]
Maybe. But it'd be strange logic. Oxford fans and staff have been extraordinarily understanding of what happened, and really got behind him during his long road back into the team. We're now all willing him to re-sign and kick on to the next level with us. If he moved, he'd have to win over a new set of fans who would be aware of his past but might be more sceptical about it than we are. Given the choice, I'd say re-signing for us would be a much shrewder move - and I do think that he owes us some loyalty, given how things turned out it would have been very easy for the club to have ripped up his contract, but they (rightly, IMHO) stuck by him.[/quote]

Surely we didn't rip up his contract because we saw him as a valuable footballing asset? It's not as if we continued paying him while he was behind bars. It was shrewd business, nothing more. If we hadn't rated his ability or attitude, I'm sure we wouldn't have kept him on. And maybe he doesn't feel he owes the club too much - they seemed to be keen to keep farming him out on loan last season, and only when our injury crisis deepened did we give him a chance ourselves. Then even when he was performing consistently towards the end of the season he found himself on the bench more often than he might have hoped.

I'd love to see him stay, and he does have a good rapport with the fans after all he's been through, but if other clubs are now offering him more cash / better prospects, good luck to the guy. That's football these days, sadly.[/quote]

Exactly right - I would think the cost of keeping his registration open was peanuts and Chapman was (and is) a good prospect, why would the club have done anything else? So in terms of loyalty, whilst the club stood by him, it was an easy decision given that his crime was not pre-meditated and let's face it there but by the grace of God go most of us. I hope he stays but I don't put as much stall in the loyalty argument as some on this board and the vast majority on the other one