Football Season Guide

Oxford finally managed to win promotion to the third tier and, like most newly-promoted side, will start life in League One with their immediate goal being to simply stay up. Despite finishing way behind League Two champions Northampton last season, they were the league's top scorers, but this had a lot to do with the form of star man Kemar Roofe, who has been allowed to join Leeds in a multi-million pound deal. To make things worse, Roofe is not the only important player that left during the summer, as Callum O'Dowda has also left for a Championship side in Bristol City, while important defender Jake Wright has also left for League One rivals Sheffield United. Of course, Oxford have reinvested some of the money earned from the transfers of Roowe and O'Dowda, but their fans will not be fully happy with the list of arrivals, as they will probably feel that, after earning nearly five million pounds from transfers, the club could have done better than to sign the likes of Wes Thomas and Rob Hall, who have been inconsistent at League One level, as well as Kane Hemmings, who hardly ever set the English lower leagues on file with his scoring prowess. Despite the quality of the departed players, the Yellows still have quite a decent squad. They have strength in numbers, which is rare for newly-promoted sides, a solid defence and a decent midfield, while there are also several players in their squad with previous League One experience. Their summer transfers mean that a second consecutive promotion should be out of the question, but they should otherwise be Okay.