Oxford United manager Karl Robinson was the guest on this weeks Five Minutes Fans Forum on BBC Radio Oxford. The U’s boss discussed Tuesday night’s performance, out of contract players and pre-season plans.
After that performance on Tuesday night are there some players that will be leaving in the summer?
— Owen Moss (@OwenMoss0419) February 17, 2021
Speaking about his side’s performance against Tranmere on Tuesday night, Robinson admitted it helped make up his mind about certain players futures.
“Yes it has,” he said when asked. “I wouldn’t say the Tranmere game was the deciding vote, but it only told me what I already knew.”
He added: “You need a squad, so you need good personalities around the building.
“There might be players you think are a little bit off it, but they bring a bit of glue and make things complete behind the scenes.
“Sometimes you’re best having players who might underperform but are low maintenance and have a great personality around the place.”
The U’s boss added there would ‘hopefully’ be news on of the clubs out of contract players. Six first-team members will see their deals expire in the summer but Robinson is hoping for positive news on one player this week.
What's going on with Dan Agyei? He's not been in the squad for a while. I think he would've benefited from a loan.
— El Snell (@El_Snell) February 17, 2021
Dan Agyei missed the Tranmere loss and has been left out of the last three league squads. Robinson has previously criticised the forward but played down talk of trying to secure a loan move away for the 23-year-old.
He added: “We’ve got so many games coming up, there’s going to be an injury crisis at some stage.
“We’re better having more players we can carry with our financial situation, rather than pushing them out on loan and three or four games down the line we need them.
“I have to make selfish decisions for the benefit of the football club.”
Finally, Robinson confirmed the club are looking to continue with plans of a pre-season in Spain. The U’s were due to head out at the start of the current season but had to cancel plans as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve had plans to go back to Spain on hold for 12 months,” he said. “By then we’re hoping the vaccinations could have filtered down to professional sport.”
