The U’s will compete in League One next season after finishing 22nd in the second tier last term.

Saunders played for the club from 1987 to 1988 and played 52 times, scoring 20 goals, before moving to First Division champions Liverpool.

The former Yellows goal scorer appeared at the DEBRA Charity Cup at Oxford City last weekend for the Oxford United Legends team alongside other ex-professionals including Graeme Souness, Ron Atkinson and Matt Le Tissier.

Speaking exclusively to the Oxford Mail, Saunders opened up on his feelings towards Oxford and went on to detail what the U’s must do to bounce back from relegation.

“It’s hard to compete [in the Championship] for Oxford. But it was nice to see them in there last year, and I thought they were going to stay up,” the 61-year-old admitted.

Dean Saunders playing against Liverpool for Oxford United (Image: Oxford Mail archive)

“Six or seven games to go, I thought they were going to do it. So I was a bit gutted.

“I was always proud to play for the club. But they’ve got to bounce back now.

“There’s sometimes a hangover from relegation. Players thinking they’re too good to be in League One. Feeling sorry for themselves. Maybe saying to their agent: “Can you get me out of here? I don’t want to play in League One”.

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Former Oxford United striker Dean Saunders playing at Oxford City (Image: Oxford City FC)

“And then right at the start of the season, you get off to a bad start. Because the players, up until the first game of the season, still think they’re leaving. They’ve got a chance of getting out the trap door.

“The manager’s job there is to get their minds focused on winning the first three or four games. Once that takes care of everything, you get off to a good start. Everybody wants to be there.

“Matt Bloomfield…he’s balancing the budget. Deciding who wants to be there.”

Saunders went on to become a manager after his playing days ended.

“I’ve managed in League One, I’ve managed in the Championship. It is a big difference.

Former Oxford United striker Dean Saunders (left) with Oxford Mail reporter Malachi Obrey at Oxford City (Image: Newsquest)

“I managed Wrexham against Oxford in the conference. 2011, something like that. Chris Wilder was manager.

“I was distraught to see him in the conference. I played for them in the [First Division]. But even being in the Championship, I thought that’s brilliant coming from where people forget.

“Luton have done it, Wrexham have done it: coming from down there, right down there all the way up to the Championship. It looks like they’ve got good foundations as a club.”

Le Tissier is widely considered one of Southampton’s best ever players and was a Premier League star in the 1990s, also managing eight caps for England.

Nicknamed “Le God” by Saints fans during his 16-year spell at the club, the 57-year-old scored 195 goals in 520 games as an attacking midfielder, 101 of those in the Premier League.

Le Tissier played at Oxford City’s Mgroup Stadium last Sunday in the DEBRA Charity Cup organised by Liverpool hero Graeme Souness, appearing alongside other big names such as Dean Saunders and Carlton Palmer.

Despite spending his entire professional career at St Mary’s, the ex-England international detailed the fact that he could have shone for the U’s rather than on the south coast.

“Oxford was the first club I was associated with,” Le Tissier confirmed to BBC Radio Oxford.

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak (right) speaks with former Southampton player Matt Le Tissier (Image: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

“I came over as a 15-year-old back in 1984 and I moved to Oxford to live with a friend of my dad’s and went to school here. The idea was that I was going to train with the schoolboys in the evenings and at weekends.

“I didn’t settle in the school that I went to and after a couple of days I was too homesick and went back home.

“I was desperate to become a professional footballer so I wanted to give it a try. I also then had a trial with Southampton just after that and then Southampton decided they wanted to sign me.”

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Graeme Souness on the touchline at Oxford City (Image: Oxford City FC)

Le Tissier’s Oxford links do not end there, however.

“I came back a few years ago when Michael Appleton was manager and Oxford were having a bit of a crisis in the penalty-taking department. I think they’d missed about seven or eight in a row,” he said.

“Dave Jones, the presenter at Sky, was on the board at the time and he said to me: ‘We’re struggling with penalties…come down and show the lads how you did it’. So, I did.

David Jones (left) with Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth in the directors’ box at the Kassam Stadium in October 2017 (Image: David Fleming)

“I went down on one Friday morning and showed them, and then on the Saturday I was on Soccer Saturday and Jeff Stelling throws to the game at Oxford and the presenter goes: ‘Oxford have just missed a penalty’.

“I was like, oh no, what have I done? Luckily for me, they never took the advice I gave them which was never hit it down the middle because I always went either side.”

The culprit that day was former Yellows forward Kemar Roofe who hit his spot kick down the centre of the goal and saw it saved in a 0-0 draw with Morecambe at the Kassam.

The U’s lost some key players after being relegated from the Championship, with the likes of Tottenham Hotspur striker Lankshear and Brentford midfielder Yunus Konak returning to their parent clubs.

Eastwood says the club must replace these players with quality whilst keeping their ‘core’.

The 36-year-old goalkeeper recently signed a new contract in OX4 as a coach, helping the next generation of shot-stopper whilst still training with the first team and to support the goalkeeping department.

“I’m happy to be here still,” Eastwood told The Dub, BBC Radio Oxford.

“Hopefully I can be here for a long time to give back my knowledge I’ve got over the years with this club. In League One, things happen, there are a lot of games in different competitions and I’m sure that if I’m called upon, I could come in and do a job when needed.

🧤 Simon Eastwood Signs New Coaching Contract.

Easty will officially help to coach the next generation of Oxford United goalkeepers and will continue to train with the Men’s Team to support the First Team goalkeepers. ⤵️

— Oxford United (@OUFCOfficial) May 27, 2026

“Will Lankshear, who probably won’t be coming back, will be a massive loss. Players like that, for me, we need to replace with good quality to get us some goals to get us straight back up.”

Oxford United striker Will Lankshear has returned to parent club Spurs (Image: Jason Dawson)

The veteran keeper is close with Yellows captain Cameron Brannagan, with the duo two of the longest-serving players at the club.

“I speak to Cam on a daily basis. He obviously loves the club as well, he’s been here a long time.

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Simon Eastwood signs new Oxford United player-coach contract (Image: James Williamson)

“He’s absolutely devastated to go down and he wants to be a Championship player, wants to play in the Championship, wants to do it with Oxford. As a team, we just need to bounce back as quickly as we can. Hopefully we can keep our core and our best players.”

Eastwood has been at the club for 10 years now after joining in 2016, his second spell with the club.

His first spell was an unsuccessful year in 2010/11 where he was second fiddle to Ryan Clarke and failed to make an appearance before being released.

“I’m very realistic and open about my career.

Cameron Brannagan on the ball for Oxford United (Image: Mike Allen)

“I’m not a Championship keeper. Five or 10 years ago, maybe I could’ve given it a good shot.

“Could I come in and do a job for a game or so? I think I could. But to be consistently playing, week-in, week-out, I probably don’t think I’m there anymore in the Championship.

“League One, I think, is a little bit different in the sense of I’m still good enough to…I’ve obviously played a lot of games in League One since I’ve been at Oxford and I know the standard.

“We’ve got two really good goalkeepers in Jamie [Cumming] and Matt [Ingram] at the moment, so I was never going into training every day or knocking on the manager’s door thinking I should be playing.”