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.”

Matt Bloomfield makes his debut as the new Oxford United head coach (Image: ©Jason Dawson)

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.

Oxford United have published new images of what the club’s proposed stadium at The Triangle could (Image: Oxford United)

“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 owner Erick Thohir (Image: Steve Daniels)

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.”

The two clubs face off tomorrow in an important game around the Championship relegation zone as the 23rd-placed U’s take on 20th-placed Blackburn with just four points splitting them.

Rovers boss O’Neill is also manager of the Northern Ireland national team of who Oxford have four current Green and White Army players in their ranks.

“It’s a fairly unique situation I would suggest,” Bloomfield pondered in his pre-match press conference.

“It’s not very often a manager has a club and an international job and comes up against a team with so many players from the nation.

Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill during a press conference (Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire)

“Michael will have a big know-how about a lot of our players and I’m sure he’ll be using that to the best advantage that he can.

“We’re going to have a tough game.

“Michael’s an extremely experienced manager who sets his team up.

“They look really well-organised, really diligent in their defensive shape.

“It’s not going to be easy for us to break them down at all.”

Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill (Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire)

The Northern Irish contingent in OX4 consists of Ciaron Brown, Brodie Spencer, Jamie McDonnell, and Jamie Donley, with all but McDonnell having played for the senior national team under O’Neill.

The Rovers manager has overseen five game so far after taking charge in February, winning his first two and losing the following two before drawing 1-1 with fellow relegation-threatened side Portsmouth last time out.

Meanwhile, the Yellows have won their last two games with a victory over West Bromwich Albion preceding Friday’s impressive 3-1 win away at Preston North End.

The club and city now has a restored sense of belief going into the last couple of months of the season.

“If you hear what was going on in the changing room after the game on Friday, with our supporters around, speaking to people around Oxford and bumping into people, it’s been lovely to do,” U’s boss Bloomfield continued.

“And I feel like there’s a confidence and a belief coming back to our football club which is what we’ve been searching for.

“There’s been an increase in performance level. We’ve looked like we’ve had a good consistency about us.

“I think there’s been a repetition about our in-possession and out-of-possession shapes and what we’re going after and that’s starting to come through.

“I really want to give our supporters something to cheer about tomorrow night but it’s going to be a tough game against really stern opposition, so we have to make sure that we perform properly.”

The Yellows have won their last two matches against West Bromwich Albion and Preston North End, respectively, scoring from four set pieces in their five goals across the duo of Championship games.

Skipper Brannagan recorded an assist for the U’s opener after just five minutes at Deepdale, finding scorer Michal Helik from a free kick.

United take on Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday night in an important clash in the fight for survival.

“We scored a lot of set pieces last season and it’s something that we looked at, and I felt we could’ve been a bit better at this season,” the 29-year-old admitted.

Michal Helik scores Oxford United’s opener against Preston North End (Image: Oxford United)

“Over the past couple of games, we’ve started putting good deliveries in and people are attacking in the right areas and we are scoring goals.

“It’s clearly a threat of ours and we want to keep that as much as possible. Hopefully another one will come [against Blackburn].”

Brannagan has played in a midfield duo for much of this season, his partner often changing.

Brian De Keersmaecker, Will Vaulks, Jamie McDonnell, and, most recently, Yunus Konak have all played alongside him, with 20-year-old Konak taking his opportunities in recent games whilst on loan from Brentford.

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“He’s had to bide his time,” Brannagan continued.

“He’s worked hard every single day in training, and he’s never thrown his arms up and given up just because he wasn’t playing.

Yunus Konak making his first appearance in an Oxford United shirt against Bristol City (Image: ©Jason Dawson)

“He’s got a great attitude, he’s a great kid and he’s really gelled into the group, and I thought he’s played very well when he’s played. Hats off to him, it’s enjoyable playing with him.”

The U’s captain has the experience of battling relegation from last season in the Championship, as well as in League One on occasion since he arrived in OX4 in 2018.

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“There have been a few times when I’ve been at this club, and we’ve been fighting relegation and it’s never a nice position to be in,” he added.

“But you have to find a way to win, and I feel like we have done that in the past two games.

Cameron Brannagan runs with the ball for Oxford United against Leicester City (Image: Mike Allen)

“We do believe we can stay in the league and we’re more than good enough to stay in the league.

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“I’ve been here for a long time and it’s something that we’ve believed in for a long time.

“It’s not been great for most of the season if we’re being honest with ourselves, but we’ve got 10 games and we believe that we can stay in this division.

“You can feel it in the group. There’s a lot of confidence.

“It’s another big game [against Blackburn], a different challenge, and something we’re really looking forward to.”