Lyndon Lloyd 31/01/2025 41comments  |  Jump to last

Stanley Mills is moving back to Oxford United this month but this time it's on a permanent basis after Everton agreed to sell the versatile player to the U's.

Mills was on loan with Oxford last season when he suffered a serious knee injury that prematurely ended his spell there and forced him to return to Merseyside for his rehabilitation.

It had been expected that Mills, the son of former Leeds and Manchester City defender, Danny and a hugely promising Academy prospect, would be farmed out on another loan this month following his recent return to training but he is now set to leave Everton.

The fee that takes Mills south is undisclosed.

 

Reader Comments (41)

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Glenn Lambert-Vickers
1 Posted 31/01/2025 at 22:46:55
No!!! This is one we should not have let go. The boy has talent. Hope we have a buy back clause.
Brian Wilkinson
2 Posted 31/01/2025 at 22:58:17
I think he is a very talented player, hopefully a sell on clause or buy back in deal.
Paul Kossoff
3 Posted 31/01/2025 at 22:58:57
Very strange. Possible Moyes dosn't like his dad.
Paul Birmingham
4 Posted 31/01/2025 at 22:59:53
Wow, how the wheel of fortune turns.

I'd love to know why, but for me he was in the top 2 players in that team until his injury.

Good luck Stanley in furthering your football career.

Derek Knox
5 Posted 31/01/2025 at 23:04:30
Shocked to be honest, he was one I thought we should keep ! Got him fit after bad injury, to benefit another Club ?

Funny Old Game ?

Robert Tressell
6 Posted 31/01/2025 at 23:06:33
Very pleased for the lad. Good player at u21 level and needs games which he won't get at Everton. Hope he does well.
Brendan McLaughlin
7 Posted 31/01/2025 at 23:11:39
Paul #3

Moyes very publicly embraced his Dad on the pitch after West Ham's European success.

Really don't think there's an issue there tbh.

Mal van Schaick
8 Posted 31/01/2025 at 23:26:02
At least it wasn’t Accrington Stanley!
Ben King
9 Posted 31/01/2025 at 23:47:15
What a shame - was certain this guy could get to EPL standard given the rave reports. Obviously not

Seems our academy (Harrison Armstrong aside) really isn’t up to much

Anthony Dwyer
10 Posted 01/02/2025 at 00:12:49
Watched him in the States in pre season a few seasons back, looked a very good prospect, raw and game as a badger, poor decision imo.
Jay Harris
11 Posted 01/02/2025 at 05:20:09
Very sorry to see him go. Thought he looked a good prospect as a wingback that could score goals and had a bit of pace and energy about him.
Steve Brown
12 Posted 01/02/2025 at 05:31:17
If we have a buy back clause or sell on fee, then this makes more sense.
Shaun Parker
13 Posted 01/02/2025 at 06:35:17
The deal makes no sense.
Destined to be a great player with time and investment in him.
This is what Everton should be doing is bringing through players like this.
All I can think of is the lad really enjoyed his time at Oxford and wants to go back.
Good luck to him.
Danny O'Neill
14 Posted 01/02/2025 at 07:03:00
I heard a lot about him and he impressed on the few occasions that I managed to watch the U21s.

Good luck to him. He’s obviously made a football decision to play competitive football more regularly.

Hugh Jenkins
15 Posted 01/02/2025 at 07:34:33
Hopefully, this is not another Antonee Robinson type of sale, that will come back to haunt us in a season or two.
Edward Rogers
16 Posted 01/02/2025 at 08:25:38
I assume the transfer fee is around the £20m mark? Or is it only the RS who get that for their reserve team players?
Colin Crooks
17 Posted 01/02/2025 at 08:36:09
Edward

We got 2m for Antonee Robinson. No flies on us....

David Bromwell
18 Posted 01/02/2025 at 08:37:08
It's a really hard road for some players and Stan's has not been easy so far. I sincerely hope he has a great future, and maybe it might be back with us. But for now just enjoy playing Stanley I and many others will be wishing you well and keeping a close watch on your progress.
Micky Norman
19 Posted 01/02/2025 at 08:43:22
Maybe the lad wanted immediate first team football rather than bench warming. Who can blame him?
Ian Bennett
20 Posted 01/02/2025 at 08:47:00
Contract up in the summer, and assuming he's unwilling to sign, this could have been the only deal available.

Hope there is a sell on fee.

Joe McMahon
21 Posted 01/02/2025 at 08:54:55
I'd rather we kept, and let DCL leave.
Dave Abrahams
22 Posted 01/02/2025 at 09:18:53
I hope Stanley does well in the future, as regards to the fee I don’t think Everton were in a very good bargaining position with the lads’ contract up at the end of the season and just recovering from a serious injury I doubt the fee would have been very high and a sell on deal would only help Everton when all Oxford had to was wait until the end of the season and there would be no fee at all.
John Graham
23 Posted 01/02/2025 at 09:27:43
He's an attacking midfielder, not a fullback.
Very good prospect and was very close to a place in the first team squad until his injury.
Surely a better option to this Alcaraz that we are looking at buying.
Maybe it's a PSR thing and will help us out a little, but we have got to give the youth players a chance or they will lose that hope of a first team place.
Time to up our game on the youth set up I think or what's the use of spending lots of time and money try to bring them through when they never seem to be good enough and don't even have a good sell on value.
Expect we will be lucky to get a couple of a million for him knowing Everton.
Mike Doyle
24 Posted 01/02/2025 at 10:00:19
We have no details, but If he’s told the club he isn’t re-signing in the summer then a deal which yields any revenue probably makes sense.
Sam Hoare
25 Posted 01/02/2025 at 10:24:08
Shame that injuries struck when he was really making progress. Still got a good shot of being a decent Championship/lower premier league player but if you’ve not played any first team minutes by the time you’re 21 and a half then it’s probably time to move on. Shame but good luck to him.
Tony Abrahams
26 Posted 01/02/2025 at 10:35:52
This is a very good move for the kid, imo. I watched Oxford, beat Millwall on New Year’s Day, and was impressed with them that day.

Listening to Millwall fans, they all said that Gary Rowarth, could only really play one way, but Oxford, definitely had a much better pattern and a lot structure than Millwall, in this game, so I’m hoping this move suits Stanley, because I’m sure he’s good enough to play higher

Robert Tressell
27 Posted 01/02/2025 at 11:37:18
I know I make myself unpopular with these views, but the only players destined to be great players are in Premier League first team squads at 18 / 19 and playing lots of international youth games from England u15 through to u21s. Even then, some of them fall away.

If you play more than about 15 u21 games without getting a first team appearance - then your destiny is to build a career in the lower leagues and get to the top from there.

Mills is doing the right thing for himself and has done really well to get a contract with a Championship club.

Frank Crewe
28 Posted 01/02/2025 at 11:49:30
@Robert 27
Not every player has to be a great player. Most players never get anywhere near the 'great player' level. This is why they are called great players because they are rare.
Most players have their careers and retire. Mills will be one of those.
Although I do agree that if a young player isn't in or around the first team squad by the time they reach their late teens/early twenties then their career has stalled and they need to move on if they wish to continue as professional footballers.
Anthony Dove
29 Posted 01/02/2025 at 12:52:05
Very disappointed with the decision.
Jack Convery
30 Posted 01/02/2025 at 12:59:47
Very sad. He looked a real prospect. Buy back clause should be included, hopefully.
Robert Tressell
31 Posted 01/02/2025 at 13:22:46
Absolutely Frank. What I mean though is that the academy players themselves will know where they stand by about 18/19. They are probably more realistic about their career trajectory than the fans watching them.
Jeff Armstrong
32 Posted 01/02/2025 at 13:24:47
Could be a bit of PSR shenanigans going on with us here, rather than loan him out, which he needs, we sell, book the profit and buy back later if he progresses, I’d like to think so anyway, as someone mentioned above we don’t want another Antonee Robinson scenario.
Andrew Bentley
33 Posted 01/02/2025 at 13:25:47
PSR stamped all over it this one. Even for a small fee it’s pure profit and we need everything we can
Paul Kossoff
34 Posted 01/02/2025 at 13:39:46
Absolutely a disgrace letting this lad go for apparently buttons. The other lot filled the side with reserves in the champions League the other night, they are now regarded as wonder kids. Each one of them can now be off loaded for millions. We are in another League, sadly the one I don't want to be in, and if we continue with poor management we will litteraly be in another League.
Kieran Kinsella
35 Posted 01/02/2025 at 18:28:45
I recall similar remarks on here when Ryan Ledson, Martinez's "Diamond" went to Oxford in similar circumstances. As Sam and Robert said, 21 with no first team experience leaves the guy with a mountain to climb but he looks a solid player for that level at least.
Phil Roberts
36 Posted 01/02/2025 at 20:43:38
In the eyes of people on the terraces he looked a really good prospect.
In the eyes of people who are employed as managers and coaches at Premier League football clubs, none thought him good enough to play in the PL.
Did he just do well or did he set the world alight at Oxford?

If the latter then bad decision. If the former he was never going to make it like Lewis Dobbin, now on his second loan in the Championship with not a goal to his name.

Martin Mason
37 Posted 02/02/2025 at 04:07:56
I find it really sad because the route through the Academy is our life line of players and he has become another failure despite having such high potential.
Phil Smith
38 Posted 02/02/2025 at 04:54:09
Don’t forget, Kane was 21 before he broke into the Spurs team, with a number of unsuccessful loans prior. Then they eased in him slowly and the next season never looked back. If you don’t give these kids a run of games in the first team you’ll never know how they’ll progress. Quite a few of our ex-kids have come back to play in the Prem in some form. There have been a few that realistically could have done that with us and would have saved us a tonne of money. Would we have been any worse off than where we found ourselves over the last few years?

I think having that injury made the club re-think young Stanley’s time here. Wish him all the best.

Eric Myles
39 Posted 03/02/2025 at 08:16:18
Maybe Mills found the stadium more appealing than BMD? Number 16 in the link

Unusual Stadia

I once saw a video of a stadium that had a train line running through it, an active train line!

Found it Cierny Balog

Michael Kenrick
40 Posted 03/02/2025 at 20:46:14
This is what the 21-year-old has had to say on his return to Oxford:

“This is where I want to be. Oxford United is like a home to me. I feel my business here at the club is unfinished. I had the most enjoyable period in my career here last season. Now, I want to pick up where I left off and keep bringing success.

“2024 was a difficult year personally. I missed out on a lot of football, but it’s made me more determined to be back and give my all in yellow again.

“The Oxford United supporters have been truly incredible with me during the last 18 months. The fans are a huge reason I am back, now, I want to achieve big things together.”

Alan McGuffog
41 Posted 04/02/2025 at 12:34:40
And that lot across the park aren't listening to anything under £30 million for Doak. I just don't understand football finance

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