Oxford united FC
Oxford United account analysis by financial expert
The club published their finances last week, recording a loss of £17.5 million compared to the previous season’s £15.9 million.
The club remained within the parameters set by EFL’s Profit and Sustainability Rules whilst the club referenced the cost of competing in the Championship as the main reason for for said losses.
Football finance guru and host of The Price of Football podcast, Maguire, spoke to BBC Radio Oxford’s dedicated U’s podcast The Dub to discuss the club’s accounts.
Initial takeaways
“I’ve often described the EFL Championship as being the clown car of European football when it comes to the finances. The average losses are somewhere between 450 and 500 thousand pounds a week and the only way that you can address that is either by player sales, but there’s a limited number of players that are attracted to the Premier League and the Premier League is where the money’s coming from, or relying on owners.
“Oxford’s results, it’s scary. I’m looking at a loss of 17 million pounds and saying well actually by championship standards that’s not too bad and for a club that’s just been promoted and the previous year Oxford had lost over 15 million pounds in League One, which is very high by League One standard, but you say well at least that’s got them to the championship of things going to improve.
“The money coming in goes up, but the wage bill was up 90 per cent in the championship because you’re fishing in a different pond.”
Oxford’s standing in Profit and Sustainability Rules
“It is a bit ironic because they encourage neither profitability nor sustainability, but you’re allowed to lose £39m. Some people say well hold on, Oxford must be fairly close to that, but you exclude your infrastructure costs from the calculations.
“It looks delicate because Oxford United’s losses for the last three seasons are around 41 million, but you add back those particular issues and I think they are comfortably within the limit.
“It should however be stressed that it’s a limit and not a target and I think this is where lots of fans sometimes get aggrieved and not necessarily thinking it through.
“You’re still relying upon an individual or a group of individuals to subsidise the football club to the extent of millions of pounds a year…but it doesn’t necessarily mean that if I’ve got a credit card and I aim to get to the limit.”
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Impact of potential relegation to League One
“The £11.5m Oxford United generated last season from broadcast revenue, which was around about two thirds of the total, that would drop to around about two million. So, there is a big hit.
“In League One itself, the rule is effectively for every £100 you generate in revenue, you can only spend £60 on wages. Now last season Oxford were 114 per cent, so it’s tricky.
“It will involve quite a reset in terms of what’s being paid to players, and that means that fans will be frustrated because either players will not have contracts renewed or the club will be seeking alternative places for them. And unfortunately, that’s part of football.”
Oxford United’s effectiveness as a brand
“It’s not a negative, I think a lot will depend upon how it is marketed. It’s an attractive city in many regards from an investor’s point of view and I’m here I’m thinking of US investors, how far is it from an airport because they want to come across at weekends.
“It’s not; it’s accessible I think from that point of view clearly the links with the university and so on is got a sort of cerebral element to it which I think could be attractive
“But it’s not going to add millions and millions to the price. It’s going to be a modest help but no more.”
Should Oxford fans be worried?
“I’d still be relatively relaxed. Lenders won’t lend unless it’s in their interest to do so. I’ve got to know Tim Williams – Oxford’s CEO – I’ve got a lot of admiration for him, he’s very professional, he’s not going to put the club at undue risk.
“You look at it from an internal point of view, I’ve got confidence in the senior management team.
“You look at it from an external point of view, lenders will have done their homework because we are talking about specialist and niche organisations and if the two parties are willing to come together then I don’t see a problem.”
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.
“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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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.
“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.”
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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“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.
“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.”
The U’s are looking to strengthen after suffering relegation from the Championship last season, finishing 22nd in the table.
It was recently suggested by Austria’s largest newspaper, The Krone , that Wien rejected a bid of just over €2 million from the Yellows for Barry’s services.
Geniestreiche treffen auf Bescheidenheit, Ruhe trifft auf Fröhlichkeit. Und heute ganz besonders, denn Abubakr Barry feiert seinen 25. Geburtstag – alles Gute, Abu! 🥳💜#faklive pic.twitter.com/suIAcIDz0v
— FK Austria Wien (@FKAustriaWien) July 2, 2025
Championship club Stoke have since reportedly submitted a bid worth €3 million, whilst Austrian giants Red Bull Salzburg also bidding between €3 and €4 million for the 25-year-old.
Salzburg are reportedly remaining persistent in their efforts to sign Barry and Sky Sport Austria have said the prospect of the midfielder remaining at his current club is ‘increasingly unlikely’.
Im Tauziehen um die Zukunft von Abu #Barry bleibt @RedBullSalzburg hartnäckig. Eine Zukunft @FKAustriaWien wird immer unrealistischer. #inundaut #faklive @Transferic_Sky
— Johannes Brandl (@Sky_Johannes) June 2, 2026
With the Gambian’s price having been driven up since the U’s apparent rejected bid, it is tough to see how Oxford can compete with the finances and alure of Championship football with Stoke and even Europa League action with Salzburg.
Barry played 28 times in the Austrian Bundesliga last term, scoring four goals and bagging four assists.
After joining the Violets in 2024, the Gambia international reportedly has one year left on his contract in Vienna.
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