As speculated upon yesterday, Dexter Blackstock has indeed been signed by Southampton. Neither United nor the Saints have revealed how much Gordon Strachan’s mob paid for the 17 year old striker, but the Oxford press have speculated the fee to be in the region of ?175,000, rising to ?600,000 depending on appearances etc.

Rage Online would like to wish Dexter, who we sponsored of course, all the best of luck in his career move, and we hope that he gets his chance sooner rather than later. We would have loved to have seen him playing, and scoring, for United’s first team, but we appreciate both Dexter’s and Oxford’s reasons for the move.

One direct benefit to United of this move is that it should allow Ian Atkins to seal the signing of defender Jon Ashton from Leicester City. There may even be enough money left in the kitty to bring in someone else later in the season when United’s promotion push needs to be consolidated, but that might be wishful thinking with the Us continuing to lose large sums of money each year.

In an unrelated piece of football speculation Metz right winger Gunther Van Handenhoven is thought to be about to join La Louviere. This has nothing to do with Oxford, but we couldn’t let it go unremarked, given the lad’s moniker.