Marked for Daniel Marshall
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Mar 2032
Pressure builds in the Oxford United boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Daniel Marshall damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad1 Mar 2032
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match28 Feb 2032
7 matches without a win for Oxford United
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Oxford United are no longer polite ones.
Market1 Mar 2032
Lucas Rius hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Oxford United can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Mar 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jonathan Coenen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Oxford United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Elias Sahraoui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings1 Mar 2032
The game went through Zaid Betteka — 6.98
Marked 6.98 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces23 Feb 2032
Anger at Oxford United spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad23 Feb 2032
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Oxford United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match23 Feb 2032
22 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market23 Feb 2032
Reiss Khela hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Oxford United can pretend not to have heard.
Market23 Feb 2032
Jack Grieves has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Oxford United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match21 Feb 2032
No end in sight to Oxford United's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Oxford United has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Elias Sahraoui and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Words at Oxford United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reiss Khela is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ikenna John, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Feb 2032
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Oxford United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market16 Feb 2032
Only the photograph left for Murphy Cooper
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Murphy Cooper will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Oxford United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market16 Feb 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match14 Feb 2032
5 matches without a win for Oxford United
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Oxford United are no longer polite ones.
The dugout16 Feb 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Oxford United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets16 Feb 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Norwich City have kept their man, and Oxford United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Elias Sahraoui was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Reiss Khela falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets16 Feb 2032
The clock did what Cambridge United would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Feb 2032
Daniel Marshall damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market9 Feb 2032
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Oxford United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings9 Feb 2032
No sign of nerves from Joseph Howard at 18 — 7.62
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Joseph Howard did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets9 Feb 2032
Oxford United asked and Lincoln City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Oxford United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match7 Feb 2032
No end in sight to Oxford United's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Oxford United has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings9 Feb 2032
Cameron Archer scored one and made one — 7.41
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.41, and 2 involvements.
Squad9 Feb 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Oxford United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Feb 2032
A move Ben Winterbottom would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ben Winterbottom is living that version at Oxford United, and it tends to show in the first month.