Yeah, I’m not looking to argue . And may I say how entertaining your comments have been this season, even if I think you’re sometimes a bit hard on KR. Barnsley might be in the premiership anyway!
For the sake of drawing a line under everything once and for all:
I think the guy is a dickhead as a bloke (nobody can comment on my personal dealings with him any more than I can comment on other people’s dealings with people who I don’t know), and I think that he makes life way harder than he needs to. He does all the hard bits and then the easy bits are often ballsed up needlessly, and he does completely contradict himself frequently while looking for plaudits / trying to deflect. I don’t like that he’s always got an excuse up his sleeve, which he turns into a medal if things go his way, and I don’t like that he can behave badly and isn’t pulled up on it. I don’t like that he’s downright lied previously, either, in terms of what he tells people privately one day and then claims publicly the next. I find it disingenuous; I don’t think it’s always just ‘playing the game’. I don’t like it at all. I also don’t think he is as good as he thinks he is, and his trophy cabinet isn’t bulging for a manager of his experience and profile. Perhaps he is about to add to it, though. I make no apologies for any of that.
BUT - I don’t think he is a bad manager. I think he isn’t as good as most people believe, absolutely I don’t, but I’ve said numerous times this season, even when we have been in the mud, “I will not call for him to go.” I’ve become infuriated with him but I haven’t done that. I actively said to myself that after last season, he had earned the right. At least publicly, I haven’t done it. I’ve criticised him (you might have noticed) but I haven’t said that I want his P45 issuing. I’ll groan and grunt and roll my eyes, and I’ll thump him when he deserves it (because sometimes he
does deserve it), but I’ve also praised him on numerous occasions. After the Gillingham game the other week I was one of the first people saying he spoke well and deserved credit for re-focusing after half time, for example. You have no integrity as a human being if you can’t offer credit when it’s due, just as you have no integrity if you never think anything isn’t good enough and only kiss people’s arses. Also, whether people admit it or not, holding others to account is necessary and often beneficial. Everybody needs it. Being a good friend isn’t blindly supporting; sometimes it’s essential to say, “You’re wrong and you’re making a mistake, and I’m telling you that because I care if you mess this up.”
Whatever anybody’s opinions or views, people who spend their time and energy posting on this forum do so because they love the club. They post here because they care; they hurt for days after a defeat because they care; they let off steam because they care; they run around the house when we score the winning goal because they care. In normal times, they spend hundreds and even thousands of pounds every year, watching games home and away, because they care. If they didn’t care then they wouldn’t be here at all. So I really think it’s silly that there ever has to be any sort of divide, or labelling of people, or that anybody has to be put into a category, or a ‘team’, or that anybody can be called less or more of a fan than anybody else, when every person on here wants the same thing. I could quite easily kickstart the Cult of Karl - or as I think it would best be known, the CoK - and I’m sure it would catch on and give us all a new bone to chase. It would definitely make me giggle. But I haven’t. Yet. No, I won’t. Probably. Either way, I don’t think anybody here did anything other than smile and punch the air come 2pm. I know that I did.
Just my opinion, anyway. We can all have different thoughts and different views, and sometimes we will be right and sometimes we will be wrong in what we believe, but I like to think that most people here are smart enough to realise that everybody around them is a fan. One or two individuals probably won’t ever get that, and will only ever prioritise their own sense of self-importance that comes with digging people out or putting themselves on a pedestal for the sake of likes, but that’s their problem. Whatever they need to get them through the day. I personally believe that 99% of Oxford fans have enough about them to understand that even those they disagree with are as passionate about the club as anybody else. I really don’t think that anybody needs to be labelled or called a name of any description to justify that. Nobody can claim to be a champion for positivity by indulging in something so negative.
And anyway, you should just be happy that I didn’t mention that we currently don’t have a right back, and that one of our two senior centre backs (McNally hasn’t played a single professional game) is currently struggling to be fit, which could still end up costing us purely because we refuse to sign defenders. I’ve put the effort in to avoid that today
Line drawn - I can’t really say anything more or fairer than that ever again. I’m off for a shower beer. Feel free to join me.
Peace and f*cking. And now, more than ever,
believe.
