{"id":651428,"date":"2025-02-04T01:34:40","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T06:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=651428"},"modified":"2025-02-04T01:34:40","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T06:34:40","slug":"oxford-united-january-transfer-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/02\/04\/oxford-united-january-transfer-window\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford United January Transfer Round-Up: Championship Experience Added and Loan Moves Away for Fringe Players"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a strong January transfer window for Gary Rowett’s Oxford United<\/a>, with the arrival of five new faces.<\/p>\n

There has also been a couple of departures as the new head coach gets ready to announce his 25-man squad.<\/p>\n

Oxford United Winter Window Round-Up<\/h2>\n

Arrivals<\/h3>\n

Oxford United began the month by breaking their club-record signing with the arrival of Ole Romeny<\/a> from FC Utrecht.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old arrived as a relatively unknown player, but having recently switched his international allegiance from the Netherlands to Indonesia, Oxford’s oversees owners clearly had a pull on the attacker.<\/p>\n

It took a while to come up to speed given the Eredivisie’s winter break, but the club-record signing has come off the bench in the last two games against Stoke and Bristol City, respectively.<\/p>\n

Alex Matos was the next to arrive, with the 20-year-old joining on loan from Chelsea.<\/p>\n

The midfielder spent the second half of last season on loan at Huddersfield and has featured as a substitute in all of Oxford’s five league games since his move. So far, he looks a lively addition who isn’t afraid to make a tackle or pick up a booking for his troubles.<\/p>\n

Rowett was then reunited with a former player when Tom Bradshaw<\/a> ended his long-term stay at Millwall to join the U’s.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old striker spent seven seasons at the Den, with four of those coming under the Oxford head coach.<\/p>\n

Like Matos, the forward has featured in every game since his arrival but unlike the Chelsea loanee, he did start one game so far at Stoke. While the striker is yet to find the net, he has certainly shown his potential and Championship experience.<\/p>\n

The penultimate signing was a crucial one with Michal Helik<\/a> coming in to bolster the defence. With skipper Elliott Moore out injured, along with Leicester loanee Ben Nelson, adding another centre back was a high priority during the winter window.<\/p>\n

The Poland international arrived and was thrust straight in to the starting line-up against Blackburn. He has played the full 90 in all four games, scoring once and keeping two clean sheets.<\/p>\n

The difficult decision will be what to do when Moore and Nelson are back as Helik has formed a decent partnership with Ciaron Brown. Either way, it’s not a bad problem to have!<\/p>\n

The final arrival was no stranger to Oxford fans as he spent last season on loan with the U’s. However, this time he made the move permanent.<\/p>\n

Stan Mills had an impressive campaign before injury curtailed his season in January, but the winger went back to his parent club Everton and has since returned to full fitness. Now, he has come back to Grenoble Road in what is a shrewd bit of business by the club.<\/p>\n

Departures<\/h3>\n

With minutes seemingly difficult to come by, Will Goodwin was the first Oxford United player to head for the exit as he joined Wigan on loan.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old only joined the U’s last January but a mixture of injuries and good form from Mark Harris has kept him out the team.<\/p>\n

This season, he managed just 20 minutes of Championship football for Oxford but has featured in all five league games for the Latics, with mixed reviews.<\/p>\n

Ed McGinty was the first permanent departure with the goalkeeper returning to the League of Ireland and Shamrock Rovers.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old did spend time on loan at his former club Sligo Rovers but has made a permanent switch away from Grenoble Road.<\/p>\n

Following the arrival of Romeny and Bradshaw, minutes looked like it could be an issue for Dane Scarlett and he was recalled by his parent club, Tottenham.<\/p>\n

The England U21 international found the net four times in 20 appearances in what was a relatively successful loan spell, and even scored for Spurs on his return in their Europa League win over Elfsborg.<\/p>\n

The final departure of the January window was maybe a surprise to some with summer signings Louie Sibley joining Rotherham on loan.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old rejected a new deal with his boyhood club, Derby, in the summer to join Oxford but has managed just 14 appearances in yellow. He has played in all three league games for the Millers, even scoring on his debut.<\/p>\n

Owen Dale was the first to be linked<\/a> with a deadline day move away with Charlton, Wycombe and Wigan all showing interest.<\/p>\n

However, it was the latter that got the deal over the line, with the 26-year-old joining on loan until the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Dale, who joined the U’s on deadline day last season, has turned out 12 times this season.<\/p>\n

Kyle Edwards was the final departure with the out-of-contract winger joining Stevenage.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old has struggled with injuries during his time at the club but when fit, has looked a lively player.<\/p>\n

His short-term contract expired last month and a new deal looked unlikely, despite making seven appearances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a strong January transfer window for Gary Rowett’s Oxford United, with the arrival of five new faces. There has also been a couple of departures as the new head coach gets ready to announce his 25-man squad. Oxford United Winter Window Round-Up Arrivals Oxford United began the month by breaking their club-record signing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":651107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[8430,33,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-651428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oxford-united","category-championship","category-league-football"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651428","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=651428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651681,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651428\/revisions\/651681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}