Oxford United face major Cameron Brannagan transfer concern | OneFootball

Oxford United supporters will have to be fearful about the potential departure of key man and captain Cameron Brannagan.

Oxford United will be a little concerned about what is in store for them in the 2026-27 season as they get back to grips with life in League One once again.

In the 2023-24 campaign, Oxford produced a surprise season as they gained promotion to the Championship for the first time in well over 20 years, defeating Bolton Wanderers by two goals to nil in the League One play-off final.

The U’s had finished sixth in the third-tier and so the step up to the Championship was always expected to be a tough one, eventually leading to the departure of promotion-winning manager Des Buckingham.

Gary Rowett managed to produce another surprise by keeping Oxford afloat but he was the victim of a mid-season sacking last year and his replacement, former Luton Town and Wycombe Wanderers boss Matt Bloomfield, could not steer United away from the bottom three and the relegation places.

Oxford are returning to the third-tier expected to challenge for promotion but it will be a tough one alongside fellow relegated giants Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday.

Their relegation will also heighten the risk of losing key man Cameron Brannagan – and that would be further damaging to their prospects next season.

Cameron Brannagan may push to leave Oxford

Having been handed a transfer embargo to go alongside their relegation to League One, key men at Oxford could well be keen for a change of scenery and chief among them is midfielder Cameron Brannagan.

Brannagan has been instrumental for Oxford for nearly a decade now, having joined the club from Liverpool in January 2018 for an undisclosed fee.

Brannagan, who represented England on two occasions at both U18 and then U20 level, has made over 350 appearances for The U’s in his eight-year stint at the Kassam Stadium.

Technically a level above League One for the most part, Brannagan was the tempo setter and all-action presence in midfield when Buckingham built his 4-1-4-1 system around the midfielder playing in a deeper role during their play-off success in 2024.

Often linked with a move away during his time at Oxford, and nearly signing for Blackpool in the summer of 2022, Brannagan has remained loyal to Yellows, perhaps until now.

Having turned 30 a week after the Championship season ended, now could be the time for Brannagan to leave the Kassam Stadium, eventually with the state of flux in which the club finds itself.

Cameron Brannagan departure would be a huge blow for Oxford

There is uncertainty off the park at Oxford and the optimism isn’t too high on it, especially with one of their star signings this summer, Frankie Kent, having sustained an ACL injury and undergone surgery already.

Matt Bloomfield has since departed the club and, while he has a poor record in the second-tier, he did produce one of the more exciting stories in recent League One history when his Wycombe Wanderers side set the pace for eventual EFL points tally record breakers Birmingham City in the 2024-25 campaign, before he departed for Luton in the January of that season.

He has now been replaced by Aaron Ramsey, who has only ever managed three matches as he oversaw boyhood club Cardiff City’s relegation from the Championship as caretaker boss in the spring of 2025.

Ramsey’s appointment could be a masterstroke but it is a massive gamble to take, especially with the club now restricted in the transfer market.

Amid all that uncertainty, and uncertainty that has arisen in the past, the one consistent thing to fall back on for Oxford supporters was their talismanic midfielder Cameron Brannagan.

The metronomic passer in U’s midfield is the epitome of ‘everything good goes through him’ and him leaving could further upset things within the Oxford fanbase.

Their promotion a few years ago was itself a surprise one and so expectations being to repeat that are already perhaps too high – and the departure of Brannagan will be something else Oxford fans have to be fearful of ahead of the 2026-27 campaign.