Joey leaves home

United legend Joey Beauchamp has accepted an offer from United to sever his contract, which had another year left to run. Joey only started a couple of games last season, during which he scored a stunning goal against Exeter, but has suffered serious injury problems for the last couple of years. Being one of the highest paid players at the club it was clear that his non-appearance was unsustainable and so the club has presumably finally made an offer which Joey finds acceptable.

Joey is without doubt one of the most popular players ever to grace an Oxford United stadium, although recently he has not been without his critics, mainly about his workrate. Beauchamp is a local lad, living in Wood Farm and whose parents live in Summertown. He left United for Premiership West Ham for £1,000,000 in 1995, but was only with the Hammers for six weeks before making the biggest mistake of his life, joining swindon for £850,000. 14 months later his mistake was rectified as he came home, for a paltry £75,000, earning United a healthy profit.

Joey's greatest accolade came a couple of years ago, when Rage Online readers voted him the Player of the Decade for the '90s. We eagerly await news of a testimonial…

England at the Kas

In last night's Nationwide Under-17 international tournament first round games at the Kassam Stadium both games ended in draws. The first fixture between Brazil and the Czech Republic ended 1-1, whilst the following game saw Italy twice come from behind to earn a 2-2 draw with England. The second game was watched by over 5,200 spectators, plus further dozens on Sky, and generated a good atmosphere, helped along by the England Supporters Band, although one conclusion that Rage Online reached is that air horns at football games are a bad idea, especially when wielded by pre-pubescent children.

Player stuff

Latest rumour is that Ian Atkins is talking to Gareth Ainsworth, recently released by Wimbledon following his £2 million transfer from Port Vale. Ainsworth is a 29 year old right-sided midfielder and his signing would surely be a coup for Atkins, although United have suffered recently from alleged “big-name” signings such as Peter Fear (who also had a Wimbledon connection).

Meanwhile another of Atkins' targets, Lee Hodges, is currently on trial with Grimsby. He has said that he will make a decision which club to join by the end of the week and has confirmed that Oxford are one of the teams that he is considering.