Oxford play down a loan move for Constable

OXFORD United have played down any chance of loaning out target man James Constable when the loan window reopens.

League One Bournemouth, who just missed out on signing the forward permanently, are still reported to be interested and Hatters boss Gary Brabin refused to rule out the possibility either, writes Mark Wood.

He said: “That’s still the case. We are not channelling all our aggression into one player. We will focus on what we need and on the squad we’ve got.

“If I feel it’s right to bring in a bit of quality in the right areas I will do.

“I didn’t want to get bullied into anything on transfer deadline day.

“I don’t want to get forced into anything. I want to bring players in when the time’s right.”

Town’s pursuit of Constable has been well documented and last season they creatively used the loan window to sign two players with a permanent move to follow.

But Oxford chairman Kelvin Thomas didn’t expect the 26-year-old, who has scored 66 goals in 118 league starts for the club, to be leaving the Kassam Stadium any time soon.

He said: “The talk of him going out on loan is way off the mark – unless something unbelievable came in.

“He certainly won’t be going out on loan to Bournemouth any time soon.

“It’s very much matter closed and we move on to the next challenge.

I think we could have got to an agreement (with Bournemouth), because they offered a lot of money but the deal wasn’t acceptable to James.

“He wasn’t being greedy – at all. I don’t think he really wanted to go. It’s good that our players are attracting attention – that’s a compliment.”