{"id":664741,"date":"2026-02-03T05:21:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=664741"},"modified":"2026-02-03T05:21:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:21:19","slug":"transfer-deadline-day-unfolded-oxford-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/02\/03\/transfer-deadline-day-unfolded-oxford-united\/","title":{"rendered":"How Transfer Deadline Day Unfolded for Oxford United\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a somewhat strange transfer deadline day for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/02\/02\/team-news-form-predicted-line-up-oxford-united-travel-sheffield-united\/\" target=\"_self\">Oxford United<\/a> with several players linked with moves in and out.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, the U&#8217;s saw the arrival of two new players while there were three departures from the club.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/02\/02\/team-news-form-predicted-line-up-oxford-united-travel-sheffield-united\/\" target=\"_self\">Team News, Form and Predicted Line-Up as Oxford United Travel to Sheffield United\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>How Transfer Deadline Day Unfolded for Oxford United<\/h2>\n<h3>The Morning<\/h3>\n<p>The first rumour came from <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2018262307655045515\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pete O&#8217;Rourke<\/a> with the journalist suggesting SPL side Hibernian were interested in defender, Stephan Negru.<\/p>\n<p>With one defender potentially on the move, the U&#8217;s were then linked with brining in another with former player Fin Stevens linked.<\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2018283224426791290\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Football League World<\/a> claimed that the 22-year-old, who won promotion from League One with Oxford, were favourites to sign the defender after talks had broken down with Blackburn. He&#8217;s struggled for minutes during his time at St Pauli and failed to make an appearance this season for the Bundesliga side.<\/p>\n<h3>The Afternoon<\/h3>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2018302444761964954\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darren Witcoop<\/a> suggested that League One duo Burton and Barnsley were targeting Oxford striker, Tom Bradshaw.<\/p>\n<p>The forward, who joined from Millwall last January, turned out 18 times for the U&#8217;s but has found game time difficult to come by.<\/p>\n<p>However, later in the day, it was confirmed that the <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2018370328502681623\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tykes<\/a> had signed the 33-year-old on loan.<\/p>\n<p>In between Witcoop&#8217;s Tweet and the confirmation, one of Oxford&#8217;s targets had signed for Italian side, Hellas Verona.<\/p>\n<p>Faroe Islands international <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2018308669880901653\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrias Edmundsson<\/a> joined the Serie A side from Polish outfit, Wisla Plock.<\/p>\n<p>Another defender was then linked with <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2017908297970397671\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alan Nixon<\/a> claiming Oxford were interested in Blackburn left-back, Harry Pickering.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old has struggled for minutes at Ewood Park this season.<\/p>\n<h3>The Evening<\/h3>\n<p>As the window drew to a close, <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2018380692401307924\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dan Marsh<\/a> reported that Oxford were looking to land Millwall winger, Aidomo Emakhu.<\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/status\/2018444411911463214\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pete O&#8217;Rourke<\/a> added the U&#8217;s had beat the deadline to sign Emakhu in a permanent deal, which was a three-and-a-half year contract.<\/p>\n<p>After Bradshaw, there was another departure as <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.oufc.co.uk\/news\/matt-phillips-departs-oxford-united\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Phillips<\/a> saw his contract terminated by mutual consent.<\/p>\n<p>The former Scotland international, who joined the U&#8217;s in the summer of 2025, has struggled with injuries and fitness during his time at Grenoble Road and was reportedly one of the highest paid players at the club.<\/p>\n<p>The U&#8217;s then made their first deadline day arrival with the addition of Huddersfield left-back, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.oufc.co.uk\/news\/ruben-roosken-signs-oxford-united\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ruben Roosken<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old joined the club on loan but the agreement includes an option to buy, which will become an obligation should certain conditions be met.<\/p>\n<p>He made 40 appearances since joining the Terriers last January and had previously played in the Netherlands at Heracles with U&#8217;s player, Brian De Keersmaecker. The Dutchman also played alongside Michal Helik and Brodie Spencer when Huddersfield were relegated from the Championship.<\/p>\n<p>The third and final departure came late on and it was involving the first player of the day in Stephan Negru. However, the defender didn&#8217;t join Hibernian as previously suggested, but League Two club, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.oufc.co.uk\/news\/steph-negru-joins-tranmere-rovers-loan\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tranmere<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And that was that with deadline day wrapped up. However, the U&#8217;s managed to submit the deal for <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.oufc.co.uk\/news\/aidomo-emakhu-signs-oxford-united\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Emakhu<\/a> in time and he was announced this morning.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old made 74 appearances for Millwall since making his debut in February 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The Republic of Ireland U21 international is a versatile player that can play anywhere across the frontline.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Featured image courtesy of IMAGO \/ PA Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a somewhat strange transfer deadline day for Oxford United with several players linked with moves in and out. In the end, the U&#8217;s saw the arrival of two new players while there were three departures from the club. Read More: Team News, Form and Predicted Line-Up as Oxford United Travel to Sheffield United\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":647577,"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":[8430,33,32,30],"tags":[9154],"class_list":["post-664741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oxford-united","category-championship","category-league-football","category-news","tag-oxford-united-transfer-news"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664741","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=664741"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664744,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664741\/revisions\/664744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}