Waiting for Ruddock

Unsurprisingly the anticipated signing of Neil Ruddock has hit a snag, with doubts over the player's fitness. The 33 year old “hard man” is now thinking over the move (and presumably Mark Wright is doing the same), although nothing is likely to happen this week as Firoz Kassam is currently in Budapest on business (no, we're not signing Horvath).

The potential signing of Dean Saunders, Rage Online has been informed, will almost certainly not now be occurring. No reasons were forthcoming but it's quite likely that the player's wage demands were too high (or his goal returns too low).

Meanwhile there's a strong rumour that United are looking at a player from Falkirk, possibly Mark Kerr who was the Bells Scottish Division One Young Player of the Season last year.

Building from the bottom up

Although it's quite openly speculated upon in various quarters, Rage Online can confirm that United's new sponsor is Buildbase, a national company dealing, surprisingly, in building materials. Their Oxford branch is in Watlington Road (at Johnsons Buildbase).

Down the Manor

Planning permission for a new hospital on the site of the Manor was unanimously rejected today by Oxford City Council planning committee. The application was refused on environmental grounds and the proposed layout of the housing. One thing that the Committee did agree on was that some money from a Section 106 agreement should be made available to commission some artwork to commemorate the site as home to the football club.