Rage Online

&quotSmileyMan&quot wrote:

&quotSnake&quot wrote:Never rule out cock-up when considering conspiracy theories, especially at Oxford United.

I thought that there was a conspiracy to cock things up.

Even if there was, United would only cock it up.

&quotSmileyMan&quot wrote:

&quotSnake&quot wrote:Never rule out cock-up when considering conspiracy theories, especially at Oxford United.

I thought that there was a conspiracy to cock things up.

Or was it a cock up in the conspiracy?

&quotOUFC4eva&quot wrote:

Will the ST discount period be extended I wonder?

OF COURSE IT WILL.

It just has been, and we've now sold 2,000.

I have to at least partly agree with GY here, as I dont think things are quite as clear-cut as hindsight is telling us it was.

Firstly, have we ever established what the exact clause was - 25 games or more than 25? Just League or League and Cup? - as that makes a big difference....

FTR - AJs 25th game of the season was the Tonbridge Trophy replay (18Dec) with his 26th against Aldershot in the Setanta Shield four days later, so if cups were included then it was all sorted before Christmas.
His 25th League game was Altrincham (Jan 5th) before playing his 26th &amp 27th against Weymouth on the 8th and Salisbury on the 12th.

Now the key thing here was that due to fixture changes, those latter two games were on dates when noone else was playing and had we won all three both we would have been only three points off 5th place.
It is therefore understandable that coming into 2008, DP could have thinking of keeping the squad together, getting a couple of results and moving back into the race.
This mood can only have been helped by demolishing Alty 4-0, which at the time felt like a new dawn. It was only after losing both those games in hand that he decided that he could not continue with current squad and went about making the changes he did.

Now with regard to AJ, if the trigger was 25 games, then DP would have had to have made his deicsion to stop him reaching that mark over Christmas/New Year, which was by no means a clear cut one.
If it was 26 games, then why on earth would he make such a move in the two days after a 4-0 win?

So, while it is easy in hindsight to say that DP made a monumental cockup by allowing AJ to reach the trigger point, the story at the time was somewhat different, and it was certainly not the case that he allowed him to trigger the clause having already decided to offload him..

I suspect closer to the truth is that DP didn't think of AJ as a particularly weak link, indeed he publicly praised him in the Oxford Mail shortly after taking over. Then when he realised he needed to get people off the wages bill in order to bring in new players, I suspect he found there was interest in AJ, and thus let him go to Kidderminster.

Not sure then why he's being treated now as though he is so crap as not even to be worth training with the rest fo the squad.

Anyway, AJ has now been officially replaced (see front page), so will hopefully find himself something pretty soon...

I've currently left all six triallists on the list, although rumours suggest at least one (Meynell) is now trialling elsewhere...

Final cog defensively I suspect, and enough squad members to populate central midfield, so its just the wide positions and forwards (and a new keeper if TIU rumours of Turley being out for months are true)

I believe I saw an article from Chelts stating he wasn't going there after all and was staying in Oxford to trial. Couple of days old but...

Not confirmed, but it looks like Howard can be soon removed from the squad list.

http://www.morecambefc.premiumtv.co.uk/ ... 66,00.html

Talk of a possible move - by whom?
Doesn't look as though it is going to happen now - why?

A bit odd, this. I thought Howard did really well for us, and despite the Morecambe context for his comments, his enthusiasm for Oxford comes across strongly. This suggests either that Patto thinks Carruthers is a better player, or that we were unwilling to meet his preferred personal terms.

You can offer less to someone who is out of contract and looking for a club, than someone who already has a contract at a club, as a rule.

Constable and Lewis added to the list, plus an attempt to keep on top of the other triallists still with us (based on the game last night)

You need to add that Danny Rose has signed for Newport County, and you may as well remove the Howard reference, as I suspect he's not been offered anything.

&quotboris&quot wrote:You need to add that Danny Rose has signed for Newport County, and you may as well remove the Howard reference, as I suspect he's not been offered anything.

It’s simply amazing how that nice lad’s career has changed does anyone know what went wrong for him?

A good attitude, popular bloke, always the last to leave the training ground, but really, really average player and too small for the level he's good enough to play at.