OXFORD United’s retained list threw up few surprises.

Contract offers for the versatile Anthony Forde and John Mousinho were expected, although the latter could end up spending as much time coaching on the touchline as on the pitch, alongside his duties as chair of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA).

Whether Josh Ruffels signs a new deal amid reported Sky Bet Championship interest remains to be seen, while Rob Hall’s future is similarly unclear.

Read also: Oxford United announced retained list

The 27-year-old will always be loved by U’s fans for his stunning winner at Swindon Town in 2017, but this season he has been more peripheral than ever.

If another club swoops Hall’s five-year spell at United will be over, but Karl Robinson’s words that the club would be ‘monitoring the situation closely’ suggests we could see him next season.

That could be affected by uncertainty over squad sizes, as each Sky Bet League One club could be capped to 20 players aged over 21 next season.

Unlike the £2.5m salary cap, which was scrapped in February, this has not been withdrawn and the PFA last month threatened to take the English Football League to arbitration over the issue.

The retained list also showed how United view the progress of a clutch of youngsters who signed medium-term contracts in 2018/19.

Back then, Slavi Spasov, Michael Elechi, Fabio Lopes and Nico Jones all signed deals that expired this summer.

The first pair have been offered the chance to stay on but Lopes and Jones, highly-rated at the time, will leave.

Injuries have played their part, especially for Spasov and Lopes, but the quartet have made just 19 first-team appearances between them.

When asked if he had expected the youngsters to play more, Robinson told us: “Possibly, yes, (but the contracts were) protection for us as well.”