When Oxford United and Manchester City collide on Wednesday, entertainment is unlikely to be in short supply. In the manager’s office at the League One club’s Kassam Stadium, the E-word is the buzzword as Karl Robinson explains how he is looking forward to a reunion with Pep Guardiola, this time in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.
Only West Brom and Peterborough have outscored Oxford in the Football League this season and, in the top flight, only Leicester, Liverpool and City have a healthier goals-for tally. Oxford have not found the net in their past three matches but perhaps they are keeping their powder dry.
When City came to town in this competition last year, Guardiola’s side ran out 3-0 winners, courtesy of goals from Riyad Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus and Phil Foden. “I don’t think I realised how good he [Guardiola] was until we played them last season,” Robinson says. “He walked into this building with an unbelievable sense of humility and respect for our football club. But on the pitch … wow. I didn’t expect them to be that intense. I thought it was going to be a bit ‘We’re only playing Oxford’. But I was arguing over a penalty and I was saying ‘It’s a penalty’ and he [Guardiola] said: ‘It’s not a penalty.’ We had a bit of an argument and I went: ‘We’ve not touched the ball for 36 minutes!’ And he had a little smirk.
“We tried to take them on at a game that they are far better than us at,” Robinson says, allowing himself a wry smile. “It was almost like watching a game on fast-forward on one of the old tapes. When they got the ball, it was like someone had pressed play and it just seemed like they were going a lot quicker than normal. I think he [Guardiola] was surprised by our style, in a good way. We don’t change our style for anybody or become overly aggressive and try to kick them and beat them up.
“That’s not a style we are fond of. I don’t expect teams to do that to my players or my players to do that to anybody else. People might say it’s an opportunity to level it. Well, it’s against the laws of the game – you should never do that. I believe football is an entertainment industry and I believe people should be entertained when they go to watch a game, like the theatre. Even if they have finished watching the show, if they have not been entertained they want their money back.”
This weekend Robinson will celebrate a century of matches in charge of Oxford and, earlier this season, the 39-year-old eclipsed the 500-game mark as a manager. Robinson, who had a short playing career in non-league, is a charismatic, heart-on-sleeve character and it easy to understand why so many young players have excelled on his watch. Robinson, who one day hopes to manage abroad, handed a 16-year-old Dele Alli his debut at MK Dons and worked with Trent Alexander‑Arnold and Harry Wilson when they were kids at Liverpool, where he worked for nine years as an academy coach. At Oxford there is a new wave of talent blossoming, notably Shandon Baptiste, Tarique Fosu and Cameron Brannagan, who Robinson coached as an under‑seven at Liverpool.
Brannagan joined Liverpool as a five-year-old and went on to make his debut in the Europa League under Brendan Rodgers but first‑team opportunities were limited. Leaving Liverpool, Brannagan says, was bittersweet but necessary. After returning from a loan spell at Fleetwood two years ago, Brannagan was faced with going on loan to Swindon or returning to play for Liverpool’s Under-23s. “It set off a little switch in my head,” Brannagan says. “I wanted to prove myself because I believe I am good enough to play at the top.”
In Robinson, the midfielder has a manager who knows how to push his buttons. “Brendan always wanted to get the ball down, get it to the wide men and flood the box. They [Rodgers and Robinson] are very similar and it suits me down to the ground.”
Robinson, whose wife is a mental health first-aid trainer, cares deeply about his players and believes Oxford have the best support mechanisms in the Football League. In Gary Bloom, who works with the first team down to the academy, they believe they boast the only club psychotherapist in English football.
“The biggest part of my job is understanding those roles and responsibilities that you have to carry out for these young people,” Robinson says. “It’s so easy to discard young people or to criticise young people or be too hard or too soft on young people but there’s a sweet spot that you have to find as a human that allows them to be who they need to be, whatever their choices are in life, whatever their race, religion, colour, sexuality – whatever it may be. You have to put yourself in a spot where they feel safe in that moment.”
Before kick-off on Wednesday there will be a minute’s applause in memory of Jim Smith, who took charge of more than 250 Oxford matches and finished his managerial career at the club. City provide formidable opposition but Robinson has form for a cup upset, having beaten Manchester United 4-0 with MK Dons five years ago and brushed aside West Ham in September en route to this stage of the competition. Oxford’s 18-match unbeaten run came to an end at on Saturday at Stadium MK but in Guardiola’s City they face an altogether different challenger.
“I’m sure they will see this as an opportunity to try and win as many cups as possible. Right now they are the champions of England. For how long? That’s down to Liverpool,” Robinson says, smiling.