LOUIE Sibley became Oxford United’s fifth summer signing when he joined after leaving Derby County.

He was offered a new deal by the Rams, but turned that down in favour of a switch to the U’s.

We spoke to the Derby Telegraph’s Rams writer Leigh Curtis to get the lowdown on Sibley.

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What kind of player is Sibley? What are his main qualities and strengths?

Well first and foremost, he is an excellent finisher and that much was noted by Paul Warne during his time working with him at Derby. He scored a couple of crackers last season.

He’s got an excellent left foot, he’s a decent ball carrier and he can play in a variety of positions. He played left back, wing back, winger, as a number 10, and if push came to shove, he could probably play up front. 

He’s a great character to have around the place and off the pitch he will be popular as he was here.

Midfield seems to be his most natural position, but how versatile is he?

He would say his best position is perhaps as a number 10 and Oxford fans may recall the season before last when he scored twice when playing in that position.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t nail it down here as Derby didn’t really play with a 10 in the team, particularly as they moved from 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2, and in the latter, he played as a wing back where he was so good at the back end of the season.

That just proved his versatility, but what I think will tremendously help him is nailing down just one position and making it his own rather than play here, there and everywhere.

Why do you think he made the decision to leave Derby?

I would suspect it was a combination of perhaps not being guaranteed first team football next season, with Derby overhauling their midfield and the fact the contract offer was less than what he was on.

The last deal he signed was back in the Mel Morris era and would have been a decent one as they were in the Championship at the time. But I think there comes a point in time when if you have been at the club for as long as he has, sometimes you want a fresh challenge. 

Sibley had been at the club since he was seven and as what happened with Max Bird, who went to Bristol City, sometimes you just need a different environment.

How good a player do you think Sibley can be at Championship level?

He's played at the Championship before and did okay, and at 22 he is nowhere near in terms of his peak.

There are facets of his game that he can improve, such as his all-round awareness and his tackling. He loves a yellow card. But he’s a good lad, a good pro and I’ll be interested to see how he gets on.