{"id":614560,"date":"2022-07-03T12:32:43","date_gmt":"2022-07-03T16:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=614560"},"modified":"2022-07-03T12:32:43","modified_gmt":"2022-07-03T16:32:43","slug":"oxford-united-weekly-round-up-defender-departs-stadium-update-and-pre-season-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/03\/oxford-united-weekly-round-up-defender-departs-stadium-update-and-pre-season-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford United Weekly Round-Up: Defender Departs, Stadium Update and Pre-Season Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the new season closes in, it has been a fairly busy week for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/26\/oxford-united-fixtures-burnley-ciaron-brown\/\" target=\"_self\">Oxford United<\/a>. The U&#8217;s sold defender Luke McNally to Burnley, Oxford&#8217;s Managing Director has given an update on their hunt for the site for a new stadium and the club took part in their first pre-season friendly.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt\u2019s unreal to be here, I\u2019m absolutely buzzing and so glad to have got the move done.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>McNally is delighted to be a Claret \ud83d\ude04 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WelcomeMcNally?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WelcomeMcNally<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rzt17HqC9d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/rzt17HqC9d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Burnley FC (P) (@BurnleyOfficial) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BurnleyOfficial\/status\/1541824770853031936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Oxford United Weekly Round-Up: Luke McNally Joins Burnley, Stadium Update and Pre-Season Opener<\/h2>\n<h3>Defender Departs<\/h3>\n<p>As expected, defender Luke McNally left Oxford to join recently relegated Burnley. While the figure remains undisclosed, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bodenknights\/status\/1541813736842924032?t=SPodSyluA7mdK0semI7pBg&amp;amp;s=19\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reports claim that the U&#8217;s accepted a bid of around \u00a32 million.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The defender only joined the U&#8217;s in January 2021 and made just 35 appearances for the club. Despite that, it will be a huge blow ahead of the new campaign to lose a promising youngster.<\/p>\n<p>It leaves Karl Robinson with Elliott Moore, summer signing Ciaron Brown and 36-year-old John Mousinho as the club&#8217;s only recognised centre-backs.<\/p>\n<h3>Academy Staff Update<\/h3>\n<p>Former U&#8217;s player and current manager of North Leigh, Eddie Odhiambo, has been appointed head of academy player care. The 68th academy graduate to turn out for Oxford will fulfil the role alongside his current job with the Millers.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, former U&#8217;s youngsters AJ George and Jack Gardner have become academy coaches, along with former Reading scholar, Niall Keown.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Jarvis, who has been with the club for three years, has been appointed as the assistant academy manager.<\/p>\n<h3>Oxford United Managing Director Gives Stadium Update<\/h3>\n<p>Niall Williams, Oxford United&#8217;s managing director, says there is &#8220;no possibility&#8221; of securing a long-term lease at their current ground at Grenoble Road.<\/p>\n<p>This comes as the club step up in their bid to secure the land at Stratfield Brake, just south of Kidlington, towards submitting a planning application for a new ground.<\/p>\n<p>The club&#8217;s initial proposal includes an 18,000-capacity stadium, community and sports grounds and hotel, retail and conference facilities.<\/p>\n<p>And with their lease at Grenoble Road expiring in 2026, McWilliams reiterated their future at the site is in the hands of landlords Firoka, owned by former U\u2019s chairman Firoz Kassam.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no possibility to extend our lease for a long time,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxfordmail.co.uk\/sport\/20244924.oxford-united-md-kassam-stadium-lease-stratfield-brake-timeline\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he told the Oxford Mail.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We\u2019ve tried our best to make that clear, it\u2019s a question that we get asked on a weekly basis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe stadium belongs to Firoka and it\u2019s their prerogative to do what they want with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked if United are on good terms with their landlord, McWilliams said: \u201cThe relationship on an operational basis is still a very good one, and it\u2019s been that way for a long time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll have to see where we are over the next two to three months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have contingency plans in place, but at this moment in time we\u2019re making sure we can get that planning permission in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The club must reach an agreement with the county council, which owns the land, along with its tenants and sub-tenants at the sports ground ahead of their proposed move.<\/p>\n<p>Once approved, Oxford United can submit a planning application to the planning authority Cherwell District Council.<\/p>\n<p>McWilliams added: \u201cFor us to be in a new stadium, wherever that may be, we\u2019ll have to have a planning application in by the start of 2023 at the very latest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt might seem a long way, but it seems like tomorrow for us and we\u2019re working very hard on a complex issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1682\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-614562\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/20220703_083613-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/20220703_083613-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/20220703_083613-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/20220703_083613-1024x673.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/20220703_083613-768x505.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/20220703_083613-1536x1009.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/20220703_083613-2048x1346.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>U&#8217;s Hit Five Past Oxford City in Pre-Season Opener<\/h3>\n<p>Oxford United scored five times against Oxford City on Saturday in their first pre-season friendly.<\/p>\n<p>Zac McEachran opened the scoring for the hosts but the U&#8217;s responded with a brace from Cameron Brannagan and strikes from James Henry and Sam Long.<\/p>\n<p>City scored again after the restart but Marcus Browne fired home a fifth goal on the hour mark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the new season closes in, it has been a fairly busy week for Oxford United. The U&#8217;s sold defender Luke McNally to Burnley, Oxford&#8217;s Managing Director has given an update on their hunt for the site for a new stadium and the club took part in their first pre-season friendly. \u201cIt\u2019s unreal to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":614563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8430,32,34],"tags":[7903,7770],"class_list":["post-614560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oxford-united","category-league-football","category-league12","tag-luke-mcnally","tag-oxford-city"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}