DAVID Oldfield says decisions over which Oxford City players are kept on for next season will have to be a collective call.

The experienced coach took over last month, but within a week coronavirus had brought the campaign to a standstill.

The end to the Vanarama National League season has now been cancelled, so Oldfield will not see the squad in action again.

With everyone’s contracts expiring this summer, there are a lot of decisions to make on who is offered the chance to stay on, but given his limited contact time it is not something Oldfield can do on his own.

Coaches Andy Ballard, Ross Jenkins and Alan Foster will have an input, along with director of football Justin Merritt.

Oldfield said: “Since I have been in we have stressed the importance of the collective effort.

“I will be leaning on them and building towards discussing decisions on what we do with the boys.

“The players were fantastic for the five days I had with them.

“They were excellent to work with and bought into what we were saying.”

While the league have said the final games will not be played, the promotion picture still needs resolving.

It makes the date by which clubs had to announce retained lists, which would normally be next month, a little unclear.

But the lockdown restrictions are likely to mean discussions with players about their futures will have to take place remotely.

Oldfield said: “That’s not an ideal way of communicating the decisions, but under the circumstances we will have to do that.

“The key thing now is everybody’s safe, but we would much rather have these conversations face-to-face.”

Although there are lots of elements which are up in the air and reliant on government advice, City have started to think about the 2020/21 campaign.

It is by no means certain when conditions will allow football to return, but for the moment plans are being drawn up for a typical summer schedule.

That means beginning pre-season in late June, although everything is subject to change.

Oldfield said: “We are planning for the dates to be similar to normal.

“Obviously we have no idea, but it gives us something to work from.

“We want to continue to build on the environment around the club.

“We want to get the right characters and get more energy in the group and build on the attitude the boys are already showing.

“We need to be open-minded and flexible – it will be interesting to see where the landscape lies.”