Head Coach busy with pre-season planning
It may be the close season but Oxford United Head Coach Michael Appleton is still hard at work putting plans together for the coming campaign.
“The phone hasn’t stopped and I’ve racked up plenty of miles meeting players and agents so it’s been busy, just making sure that we make the right decisions on who we bring in” he told Yellow Player earlier today. ”We have brought in Kemar Roofe and Liam Sercombe and sometimes you have to move quickly to scoop up players but with others you have to be patient and you just have to make sure you are in the race. Hopefully we are in that for two or three others.
“The two we have signed already hopefully whet the appetite for what we are trying to do. The last 15 games of the season showed what we are all about. It’s about having the right personality, the right people, in the building and then obviously you have to have the right quality to go along with that. But I think we have a group of players who genuinely believe in what we want to do. When players come into the building then it’s important that they add to what we have and make that group stronger.”
The United players have a few weeks to unwind but have a strict training programme to adhere to and they know that Michael will expect them to be ready to hit the ground running when they report back next month.
“The lads will come back on 30th June and it will literally be business straight away” he said. “There will be no messing about or going softly, softly with them; as soon as they come back in they need to be ready for a very successful season. Players are professionals and will look after themselves. They maybe relax in the first couple of weeks more than they usually do but once that is out of the way I think most of them are desperate to get back in and start again.”
With well over a thousand season tickets sold in the first ten days these are exciting times for the U’s:
“The fans have been brilliant and season ticket sales are really encouraging” Michael said. “Hopefully from early doors we can give them something to shout about and we can grow in confidence; players, staff, everybody. It’s important that we all unite together and have one sole purpose: to be competing at that top end of the table.”
See the whole interview including Michael’s thoughts on Kemar Roofe, Liam Sercombe and the size of the squad he’s looking to assemble, only in Yellow Player now.