It’s that boring time of year (some people call it Summer, but football fans know it as ‘the close-season’ and the fear of it chills them to the bones) when nothing really happens and so every rumour gets blown up out of proportion, and they get more and more ridiculous. So, with a lack of real news to report, and to stop people thinking that your news editor has died, it seems timely to catch up (hence the report title – geddit?!) with the various non-stories that have been doing the rounds, none of which, in themselves is deserving of its own news item.

On the transfer front there’s precious little to report, with Brian Talbot on his holidays in the States. Most of the players are also still away (those that aren’t currently under police investigation, anyway), so there’s unlikely to be any movement on that front for a few days. Craig Davies’s alleged move to Charlton seems to have been the figment of a reporter’s over-active imagination, so most interest has centred around Tommy Mooney’s apparent attempts to hawk himself back to swindon. A humiliating episode for Mooney, Oxford and Wycombe.

Apparently Oxford have also been accused of tapping up new centre-back Chris Willmott, prior to his move from Northampton. The player himself denies the story, and no-one else seems to have commented, so this probably also falls into the category of “silly season” stories, although it also ties in with tales of certain activities involving the previous management team. We will say no more, because we can’t afford the lawyers.

Certain other players have been linked with Oxford, such as Andy Burgess (although if we sign too many more Rushden players then we may as well move the whole darned franchise here), while Dave Mackay has decided to stick around and futilely fight Lee Mansell for his place next season. It would appear that jobs in Scotland are harder to come by than anyone would credit.

Former Oxford players have been moving around a bit too. Scott McNiven has teamed up with Phil Bolland at Chester, while Chester’s former boss Mark Wright has been given the poison chalice of being employed by Barry Fry at Peterborough. In Scotland, Derek Lilley has left the Livingston franchise and joined Morton. In the deepest depths of non-league footy, Danny Hill has joined Hornchurch, while blast from the past Sammy Chung has joined the coaching staff at Minehead. Andy Scott, forced to retire last season with a medical condition, is doing scouting work at Orient.