Oxford United's scouting system is left once again in a shambles after Gary Hooper walked out to join Northampton Town's commercial department.

Hooper had been acting as a part-time chief scout because he was only being paid expenses, and he says he was often left out of pocket.

Formerly the commercial manager at the Kassam Stadium, he returned to work there as a scout because he knew manager Ian Atkins.

He leaves to start work at Northampton Town tomorrow.

And he claimed he was leaving behind a mess.

"For the past 14 months, I've worked for the club purely on expenses only.

"Primarily, I started here because I wanted to work with Ian and on the promise that a proper scouting system would be set up - and I would work to a budget.

"But there isn't one, and we've had to forego the use of other scouts around the country because the chairman wouldn't pay.

"There is nothing in hand on the scouting side which is crazy. Aside from the manager, it's probably the second most important role within the club.

"How is the manager going to find out about the opposition's strengths and weaknesses if you don't get proper reports on them?

"How can you knock out a future for the club if you don't have a system for watching the better players in the different divisions?

"You're then reliant on other people doing you favours and relying on the judgement of others within the game. But if they're not getting any payment, can you rely on them?"

Hooper, who has travelled tens of thousands of miles to watch Oxford's prospective opponents from his home in Dunstable, to produce detailed reports, says there are very few clubs who did not have a chief scout.

"The few that don't certainly have a good scouting system in place.

"Without that here you're relying on Ian, as the manager, and Darren Patterson, the youth team coach, going to watch matches for you - but they have their own games on a Saturday.

"I've been paid for my petrol to watch matches, but not been paid to come into the club on non-matchdays to go through my report.

"It doesn't make sense to ask someone in Dunstable to drive 400 miles up to somewhere like Bury, but what can you do if no-one else will do it without being paid?"

Atkins said: "This is something that has got to be addressed. We haven't got anything."