Oxford Utd

[bucksred]

Interesting on Central South TV tonight about Oxford, and Mr Kassam. It would appear that despite spending a lot of money, and gettin a nice new stadium (Are you ashamed Brizzle City Council- didnt think so!) Oxford are stagnating right now, are they near the drop zone?

It appears the fans have had enough, theyre revolting in fact. Kassam had the bottle to face his critics, and they seemingly have three consortiums ready to buy in, but only if Kassam thinks its "in Oxfords best interests" hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Now this makes me think.................they are in much the same boat as us, only a league lower, prolific underperformers, wasted money. series of high profile failures, selling our good players, and gettin in donkies

One difference though, Mr Kassam was ready to face his critics, unlike Mr Lansdown who is seemingly withdrawing. Oh and Oxford are not as far as I know split into two clubs....

Also if Oxford have THREE consortiums, how many could we attract??

Oh yeah the Lansdown sugar daddy bit is wearing thin now as we face a pretty poor season ahead, with quite possibly our worst team for ten years or so.

Discuss, and do try not to resort to cheap insults if thats in the slightest possible out of some of you?

[Rich-TWSC-]

Poor ol' Oxford United ---

I don't wish extinction on any football club - even if they are the scummiest of the scummy-scum in all of scuminster aka Oxford United.

Something is obviously going wrong there.

Their home attendences of 3702 and 3978 (last 2 home games) can hardly be compared to your 11692/12859 ... So I think you should be able to get a few consortiums together.

I think at this moment in time Oxford's problems are worse than yours though.

Edited February 8, 2006 by Rich-TGSC-

[st_jude_here]

Interesting on Central South TV tonight about Oxford, and Mr Kassam. It would appear that despite spending a lot of money, and gettin a nice new stadium (Are you ashamed Brizzle City Council- didnt think so!) Oxford are stagnating right now, are they near the drop zone?

It appears the fans have had enough, theyre revolting in fact. Kassam had the bottle to face his critics, and they seemingly have three consortiums ready to buy in, but only if Kassam thinks its "in Oxfords best interests" hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Now this makes me think.................they are in much the same boat as us, only a league lower, prolific underperformers, wasted money. series of high profile failures, selling our good players, and gettin in donkies

One difference though, Mr Kassam was ready to face his critics, unlike Mr Lansdown who is seemingly withdrawing. Oh and Oxford are not as far as I know split into two clubs....

Also if Oxford have THREE consortiums, how many could we attract??

Oh yeah the Lansdown sugar daddy bit is wearing thin now as we face a pretty poor season ahead, with quite possibly our worst team for ten years or so.

Discuss, and do try not to resort to cheap insults if thats in the slightest possible out of some of you?

You're not a voice in the dark - I agree with what you are saying - my tinted specs are off and I too think I'm seeing one of the worst teams in years, although we still have good players - would Bas have got anywhere near the team last season?

Thing is with our chairman thinks football fans are stupid, I think at this moment us City fans are a little, for not seeing what he has done, I often wonder what the REAL reason was behind 'Gentleman' John Laycock leaving the club - now this man had vision enough to set up and continue funding the academy something I think SL doesn't like, maybe a motivation behind releasing talented youngsters that would benefit our club for a few seasons longer!

I think SL makes big decisions only after he tries to distract us eg. signed Stewart releases Lita - he hides behind the manager whoever it may be and lets them take the blame - there have been several times when key decisions about signing players ie money when he became mysteriously 'unavailable' Coughlan an example - who did want to come here etc. We have lost players like Ayinsah and Hill because of small increases in contract etc. There are many more examples but he will not admit to any of them- there are people in the club who know all about it but won't say anything - we all need a wage.

I heard that Ashton Gate is worth something in the region of 13 millions pounds plus! The current board says it is going to put in 4 million not a bad return!!!! Who would buy the football club ONLY? The so called loans out of his own money are charged to the club at the highest rates - his shares increase manyfold but where is the money for players? Where are the monies from the gate receipts and season ticket sales also merchandise and corporate hospitality? Yes we are in debt but isn't that down to the running of the club from the top? I think Nickj was asking these questions too....

Could someone please let us know the real worth of the gate?

[Tunley Legend]

I do agree with the above post in that as much as we are to be grateful to Mr Lansdown for bailing us out on many occasions, a lot of our financial troubles are down to the mis-management of the present/recent board in the first place. Take off the rose-tinted specs and you quickly realise that paying wages of £5,000 per week to Marcus Stewart, £3K per week to Scott Murray, £1,500 to Partridge, £1-2K to Bridges, £2K to Carey (please do not quote me on the accuracy but you get my drift) etc. etc. when you are a loss making third division club isn't speculating to accumalate - it is financial lunacy, pure and simple that will ultimately end in the destruction of our club. It is this idiotic policy that means we now need gates of 22,000 to break even (Lansdown's own figures and more than our ground capacity). The same idiotic policy that now means we are a cannon fodder "selling club" as soon as we produce a decent young player. Just so that we can partially balance the self created debts accumalated by the club.

I am sure Lansdown has the best interests of the club at heart but unfortunately he has made many decisions along with his out of touch Chief Executive sidekick that have not worked for the club and have/will alienated supporters. Mark my words, the "Premier Club" scheme will fail as spectacularly as the new stand and more egg will be on more faces (successful businesses do not want to entertain Clients in Third Division football grounds - get a bloody grip).

And this is where Gary Johnson comes in. Lansdown desperately needs Johnson to succeed at what he has proven to be good at in the recent past. And that is obtaining cheap "nobodies" (Bas Savage will hopefully prove to be a good example), improving them individually and moulding them into a proper team. I think we are slowly seeing signs of what Johnson will achieve at the club but it is going to take a bit of time. Alongside our Academy that is the ONLY way this club can now progress forwards as we simply do not have the finances to spend proper money on players any more. If Johnson fails then the club faces a long period in the doldrums because we are looking a less attractive proposition from an outsiders point of view by the day. Look at the facts and tell me who would want to manage our club and who in their right minds would want to buy it? We are not a BIG club, lets forget all that - we are VERY WELL SUPPORTED small club (in terms of numbers, not the quality of the support), nothing more than that.

[bucksred]

We are a well supported time like the North Briz pikeys.

Some of the poorest players Ive ever seen in a City side: to whit hasbeen striker, one never will be one, an untried one, and thats to back one of the few decent players we have in Brooker. Akinbiyi, Cole, Taylor, Allison, d'Agostino, even people like Peacock, Roberts and Miller are better than the current "crew"

An Aussie international, whos never been consistently played, under THREE managers- if hes crap why werent he sold??

A journeyman from Torquay

Two players who couldnt hack it away from City

A player the genius called Tinnion signed, and he aint played since Johnson came on board

WE are just so like Oxford, and its frightening..........ck all ambition appears to be the watch word

one small ray of sunshine: Should Andrew be any good, we've a good chance of keeping him, as he's unlikely to get a game under Newell...on the other hand, if hes not.....

But hey the club listens regularly don't it..........

[Guest HampshireCider]

d'agostino???

[gazareth]

Oxford's situation is so different to us.

Kassam came in and promised to spend millions on getting the team up the leagues, but he has spent next to nothing on players and has in fact often sold the club's best for a quick buck. Many Oxford fans think that Kassam doesn't want the team to go up to avoid paying more wages and to avoid building the 4th side of the ground (he said he won't do it until the other 3 are full every week).

A few seasons ago Oxford were looking dead certs for promotion, but Kassam had all the players on one year deals and refused to negotiate until the season was over. This is why Ian Atkins quit - he couldn't work in a situation where the players (or in fact he, I think) weren't sure of their futures. The players didn't perform due to the worry of their prospective contract renewals and Oxford missed the playoffs.

Kassam has also banned certain local journalists from visiting the stadium on the grounds that they criticised him in the Oxford Mail.

He's pumped lots of money into the complex around the ground too. It's pretty clear that he bought the club so that he could buy the land for the stadium and then build a mini-empire around. The money he's spent on a multiplex cinema, bowling alley and hotel far exceeds the cash he's put into the football club.

I know many Oxford fans who are completely disillusioned and don't want anything to do with the club until he's out. This man doesn't give a crap about football and just wants to make money - he's the one that wanted to merge Bristol and Bath rugby clubs and then bring them to play in Oxford, just so he could milk more money from geniune sports fans.

The whole debacle makes me so grateful that we have a chairman, who perhaps sometimes makes decisions that baffle us fans, who genuinely cares about the future of the football club and will do everything possible to keep us in existence. All those that pray for some rich investor to come in and 'save' us should take a long look at the likes of Hassam at Oxford, Knighton at Carlisle and Reynolds at Darlington before blindly wishing for some cash-flush 'messiah'. The grass is always greener. Or redder, in this case.

Edited February 10, 2006 by gazareth

[bucksred]

Oxford's situation is so different to us.

The whole debacle makes me so grateful that we have a chairman, who perhaps sometimes makes decisions that baffle us fans, who genuinely cares about the future of the football club and will do everything possible to keep us in existence. All those that pray for some rich investor to come in and 'save' us should take a long look at the likes of Hassam at Oxford, Knighton at Carlisle and Reynolds at Darlington before blindly wishing for some cash-flush 'messiah'. The grass is always greener. Or redder, in this case.

Gazareth, till the Mad Stad fiasco, I agreed with you, but now, following all the cock ups last season, and this, I really don't think the current board do. Too much money has ben wasted, and far too many PR cock ups, and the growing patronising of long suffering fans suggest otherwise. We are at best treading water, and at worst relegation to the basement division for the first time since City went bust- things are not rosy at all. Too many people are going to realise too late things aint what they appear. Particularly the two clubs- the Gate, and the playing side.

You'll forgive me if I disagree.

AS for managers, we let too many good names go, too many times, and players have been underwhelming in the main too. The jury is still out on Mr Johnson. So far its swings and roundabouts.

[gazareth]

Maybe so, but I'd still far rather have Lansdown than Kassam, Hamman, Reynolds, Knighton or Hamilton.

[Guest Harry Dolman]

Maybe so, but I'd still far rather have Lansdown than Kassam, Hamman, Reynolds, Knighton or Hamilton.

& I think that is the point.

Running a football club is the devils own job. On one hand most football clubs are financially not viable businesses, on the other a large % of the fan base will want to see you spend more, more, more.

Lansdown isn't perfect & yes he's made mistakes. But would I trade him in for many of his peers.... I think not.

[bucksred]

& I think that is the point.

Running a football club is the devils own job. On one hand most football clubs are financially not viable businesses, on the other a large % of the fan base will want to see you spend more, more, more.

Lansdown isn't perfect & yes he's made mistakes. But would I trade him in for many of his peers.... I think not.

Lets hope youre right, mate. Things do not look good at this moment.