Ex-Staff Chris Williams Leaves

[Wallop]

According to Des we were twice on the cusp of appointing someone as his assistant - both fell through. You don’t know the reason any more than I do but why should it be the fault of the board rather than the prospective assistant turning down the job for family reasons, not fully believing in Des’s plan or any other personal reason. It sounds to me like the deal itself was virtually done but we couldn’t get it over the line, for whatever reason. And if you don’t think the current malaise has anything to do with Des Buckingham and his footballing philosophy then you’re on planet delusional.

@RyanioBirdio gave a neat summary earlier in this thread (or perhaps another one as several are covering Des at present) where he said that Senior Management tried to get an Assistant 'on the cheap'. Ryan is one that consistently has shown he clearly knows what is going on at the club and so I'm prepared to believe there was an issue on the senior management side rather than with the prospective Assistant(s).

 

[WRox]

This has really got me questioning what makes a successful football club.

My mate owns shares in race horses, day to day they’re low down his list of priorities and he loses a bit of money, but he can afford to and he makes the right investments to give him a decent chance of winning big. Gets him in the owners enclosures etc as well.

It reminds me of our board. Pay your money - get someone who knows finance to manage the balance sheet and get a stadium built, and get someone who can manage a football team.

Do I care if TW doesn’t communicate to the customers if he limits my losses and increases the value of the club with a nice new stadium? Probably not.

Do I care about the balance of the coaching set up? Or is it easier to just to keep chipping in for a decent playing budget, usually there or thereabouts aren’t we? How hard is it to be an assistant coach?

Do I care about whether the fans are feeling apathetic? Not unless it’s making a real difference to anything financially. Give them a fans forum if they ask enough times, not because you want to.

It all feels like the heart and soul of the club, that people like Chris Williams are the epitome of, is so unimportant. The things that make Oxford United a club rather than a commodity are almost an inconvenience. That feels like a heavy price to pay for half a chance of being worth a few quid more to someone.

 

[arthurturner]

The best thing the owners can do is appoint a new CEO and Chairman. That'll get the fans back onside.

Not if they’re no better than the current incumbents!

 

[MustardYellow]

This has really got me questioning what makes a successful football club.

My mate owns shares in race horses, day to day they’re low down his list of priorities and he loses a bit of money, but he can afford to and he makes the right investments to give him a decent chance of winning big. Gets him in the owners enclosures etc as well.

It reminds me of our board. Pay your money - get someone who knows finance to manage the balance sheet and get a stadium built, and get someone who can manage a football team.

Do I care if TW doesn’t communicate to the customers if he limits my losses and increases the value of the club with a nice new stadium? Probably not.

Do I care about the balance of the coaching set up? Or is it easier to just to keep chipping in for a decent playing budget, usually there or thereabouts aren’t we? How hard is it to be an assistant coach?

Do I care about whether the fans are feeling apathetic? Not unless it’s making a real difference to anything financially. Give them a fans forum if they ask enough times, not because you want to.

It all feels like the heart and soul of the club, that people like Chris Williams are the epitome of, is so unimportant. The things that make Oxford United a club rather than a commodity are almost an inconvenience. That feels like a heavy price to pay for half a chance of being worth a few quid more to someone.

They see the club as a business and nothing else, which concerns me because almost no owner makes money from football. I think they believe they can, though.

 

[Osei Yaw]

They see the club as a business and nothing else, which concerns me because almost no owner makes money from football. I think they believe they can, though.

I suspect a significant part of our owners motivation involves banking themselves some soft power.

Rescuing a club from a knackered stadium and relocating them to a modern, all electric and green alternative will be a very useful thing for them to point to if and when they need something in the future to further their own (considerable) business interests.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

They see the club as a business and nothing else, which concerns me because almost no owner makes money from football. I think they believe they can, though.

We need to know how much the stadium is going to cost, who is going to front the cash, and how much the football club will have to pay for it. They know - the idea that they haven’t got a proper financing plan is ludicrous, yet that’s exactly what I’m convinced Williams will say if questioned. “We’re still figuring that out.” No, you’re not. You know exactly how you believe this will work.

If the owners stump up £100m of their own cash (bet you they don’t) and ‘the markets’ provide an additional £60m for arguments sake, the market funded equity share would demand an industry standard yield of 3-5% per annum. That could mean anywhere from £2-3million per year solely on the minority share - the owners would still be yet to recoup on the majority outlay. How do we pay for this? Any increased revenues from stadium operations would simply go to paying shareholders, not to the football club.

What are the sums? How much are they making Oxford United Football Club liable for, and how sustainable are those figures? What if we remain a middling League One club? What if we aren’t in the Championship? What if, heaven forbid, we ended up back in League Two, which really should’ve happened last season under their watch given our points total? Can the club maintain its ability to pay for its own existence in those scenarios?

It’s all good and well people banging on about how there’s no future without this stadium, but until the details are known nobody has any idea what the future looks like with this stadium either.

 

[Brahma]

I know it's a little tongue in cheek, but I hope that all those attending the forum will do so in a respectful manner. It's important that we all get the answers we want, and abuse or personal insults will make it too easy for Tim or Grant to put their defences up and blame those in attendance for the lack of previous communication.

A fair reply Scotch.

Yes of course, it was completely tongue in cheek, everyone should turn up in a respectful manner. I felt it worth acknowledging your reply as I am sure Tim and 'some' of our club staff will read it differently and see it as the mushrooms rocking up with their pitchforks. I will continue to ridicule the Bouncers

 

[MustardYellow]

We need to know how much the stadium is going to cost, who is going to front the cash, and how much the football club will have to pay for it. They know - the idea that they haven’t got a proper financing plan is ludicrous, yet that’s exactly what I’m convinced Williams will say if questioned. “We’re still figuring that out.” No, you’re not. You know exactly how you believe this will work.

If the owners stump up £100m of their own cash (bet you they don’t) and ‘the markets’ provide an additional £60m for arguments sake, the market funded equity share would demand an industry standard yield of 3-5% per annum. That could mean anywhere from £2-3million per year solely on the minority share - the owners would still be yet to recoup on the majority outlay. How do we pay for this? Any increased revenues from stadium operations would simply go to paying shareholders, not to the football club.

What are the sums? How much are they making Oxford United Football Club liable for, and how sustainable are those figures? What if we remain a middling League One club? What if we aren’t in the Championship? What if, heaven forbid, we ended up back in League Two, which really should’ve happened last season under their watch given our points total? Can the club maintain its ability to pay for its own existence in those scenarios?

It’s all good and well people banging on about how there’s no future without this stadium, but until the details are known nobody has any idea what the future looks like with this stadium either.

I've been saying for ages for the stadium to work financially we need to be in the Championship. If we're in L1 still playing shite football attendances may increase at the start, but will soon drop. We'll be playing in a 16k capacity stadium with 8/9k home fans every week.

If we're in the Championship playing decent football you could probably add a few thousand home fans, and away end would be a sell out most weeks. That's a huge increase in ticket revenue not to mention away fans using the hotel, amenities around the ground etc.

A new stadium doesn't automatically make us a sustainable football club.

 

[sadoldsod1778]

Poss get shot down with this but perhaps he wasn't that good at his job and was happy to just jog along I Didn't Know.
And perhaps a lot of people commenting on here don't know either.
We might get someone in better don't think always being a big fan makes you good at a job !!
Just another way of looking at things,

 

[dickwalton1964]

I didn’t say some of it wasn’t on Des. But it’s more on the board for not making sure they got who he wanted in to support him.

Manning got an analyst, assistant and goalkeeping coach. All of whom left & Des wasn’t given what he needed from the start. From Des’s interview it was quite obvious that he didn’t want Hackett as his assistant. It is the senior management teams fault for not providing him with the support he needs. It also takes managers time to settle in sometimes. He deserves our patience. If that means we don’t get playoffs this season, I’ll be disappointed but Des deserves to be given time. Changing managers every 5 minutes achieves nothing but instability!

You said 'don't blame Des' - apologies if I interpreted that as Des being blameless in your eyes. Lewis Price is still here and Manning appointed him. The analyst has, I think, been replaced. It's the assistant with a bit of gravitas and clout that's missing and none of us can be sure of the circumstances surrounding that. I got the impression it was location as much as anything as to why the first choice (or second choice) didn't arrive, I may be wrong though. Do you really think the board will be skimping over a £75,000 a year assistant, having shelled out hefty compensation to get Buckingham here in the first place ?

 

[SteMerritt]

I've been saying for ages for the stadium to work financially we need to be in the Championship. If we're in L1 still playing shite football attendances may increase at the start, but will soon drop. We'll be playing in a 16k capacity stadium with 8/9k home fans every week.

If we're in the Championship playing decent football you could probably add a few thousand home fans, and away end would be a sell out most weeks. That's a huge increase in ticket revenue not to mention away fans using the hotel, amenities around the ground etc.

A new stadium doesn't automatically make us a sustainable football club.

Whilst agreeing generally with the point, it would be interesting to know how much any increased attendances and revenues in The Championship would actually cover the increase in wages that a jump to that level would demand. Given the average debt that Championship clubs are currently carrying, I'm not sure that being sustainable at that level will be any more achievable than it would be by staying where we are. At a guess, I'd think that even our 'squad' players at that level if we were to remain there would be paid what our top earners are currently.

Football finances are in a frightening state at the moment.

 

[dickwalton1964]

@RyanioBirdio gave a neat summary earlier in this thread (or perhaps another one as several are covering Des at present) where he said that Senior Management tried to get an Assistant 'on the cheap'. Ryan is one that consistently has shown he clearly knows what is going on at the club and so I'm prepared to believe there was an issue on the senior management side rather than with the prospective Assistant(s).

There's going to be a limit on what you will pay an assistant manager. I quoted £75,000 elsewhere and I would say that's about right for L1. Let's say Hackett - to get his foot in the first team door as much as anything - has taken the job on a grand a week, then we are talking absolute peanuts in the difference between a cheap option and a more renowned one.

 

[Wallop]

We need to know how much the stadium is going to cost, who is going to front the cash, and how much the football club will have to pay for it. They know - the idea that they haven’t got a proper financing plan is ludicrous, yet that’s exactly what I’m convinced Williams will say if questioned. “We’re still figuring that out.” No, you’re not. You know exactly how you believe this will work.

If the owners stump up £100m of their own cash (bet you they don’t) and ‘the markets’ provide an additional £60m for arguments sake, the market funded equity share would demand an industry standard yield of 3-5% per annum. That could mean anywhere from £2-3million per year solely on the minority share - the owners would still be yet to recoup on the majority outlay. How do we pay for this? Any increased revenues from stadium operations would simply go to paying shareholders, not to the football club.

What are the sums? How much are they making Oxford United Football Club liable for, and how sustainable are those figures? What if we remain a middling League One club? What if we aren’t in the Championship? What if, heaven forbid, we ended up back in League Two, which really should’ve happened last season under their watch given our points total? Can the club maintain its ability to pay for its own existence in those scenarios?

It’s all good and well people banging on about how there’s no future without this stadium, but until the details are known nobody has any idea what the future looks like with this stadium either.

100% this except I believe the amount to be raised from the markets will be much nearer to the total figure required. That's all well and good as long as the repayment scheme for both interest and capital elements is robust and realistic whilst also allowing the club to thrive (what's the point of a shiny stadium if we're plummeting down the leagues due to underinvestment). Tim W is an accountant and so should be able to clearly explain the structure of the proposed funding and repayment plan so that all customers are assured (or not).

 

[Reynolds97]

Don’t blame Des when the powers that be can’t even be bothered to allow him to bring his own coaching staff. The remnants of Robinson’s reign are still here. The only difference for manning is he had his own people in key positions supporting him. Des hasn’t got that. They basically shoved Chris Hackett on his lap and it wasn’t what Des wanted. He wanted his own man. That blame falls directly at the door of Tim Williams.

Assistant or not the players do not respect Des. I actually feel sorry for him when I've heard senior players speak about him in the way they do. Sadly just losing any remaining interest in Oxford just a souless depressing experience.

 

[sadoldsod1778]

Which players???

 

[Foley]

Poss get shot down with this but perhaps he wasn't that good at his job and was happy to just jog along I Didn't Know.
And perhaps a lot of people commenting on here don't know either.
We might get someone in better don't think always being a big fan makes you good at a job !!
Just another way of looking at things,

Some on here seem to have an idea, Whist many were critical of the player interviews.
I would imagine that most of us don't really have any idea of how big a miss Chris will be and whether this can be improved upon.

 

[billyturleyscurlywurly]

Looks like it’s confirmed he’s heading to Oxford City.

 

[Northstandboy]

Looks like it’s confirmed he’s heading to Oxford City.

I can see why, the work demand will be hell of a lot less than a FT L1 club.

 

[MustardYellow]

Whilst agreeing generally with the point, it would be interesting to know how much any increased attendances and revenues in The Championship would actually cover the increase in wages that a jump to that level would demand. Given the average debt that Championship clubs are currently carrying, I'm not sure that being sustainable at that level will be any more achievable than it would be by staying where we are. At a guess, I'd think that even our 'squad' players at that level if we were to remain there would be paid what our top earners are currently.

Football finances are in a frightening state at the moment.

Very true. To be fair, there are very few truly sustainable clubs in the whole country. Brentford is the only one that springs to my mind.

 

[dickwalton1964]

I can see why, the work demand will be hell of a lot less than a FT L1 club.

His choice do you think ? Or was he pushed, as seems to be the general consensus on here. If it's his choosing - and I think it probably is - then how is this the fault of the board ? Employee leaves job to better himself - like about a million others on a daily basis!