I believe that Ferguson has come out, a few days before meeting the fans, and looked to defuse the tension from what would have otherwise could have been a pretty volatile fans forum.
I don't think that anything would have hugely changed behind the scenes and I suspect that he will soon jet off and leave Tim Williams to continue as before.
Exactly this Scotchers - this felt absolutely like an exercise in trying to reshape the growingly hostile landscape, re-set some of the narrative and soften mindsets ahead of the fans forum. Understandably so perhaps, but while the interview was welcome and Grant spesks well, lots of questions remain unanswered.
Some of the more concerning points.
Grant gave no clarity at all in terms of project cost, funding or future stadium ownership. We have no certainty that the club will own its new home or be in a position to re-pay the likely huge level of debt. The owners can’t be about to embark on a £100-180 million (who knows?) project without having a very clear understanding of, and business case for, what does sustainable mean? And we can’t just blindly trust that our future (unknown) ownership structure, carrying this massive mountain of debt, will be hugely more benign landlords than Kassam.
Grant did not really accept and certainly didn’t apologise for the shockingly poor communications under TW/AB - in fact the club hasn’t under communicated in his opinion - really?
Grant acknowledged that he worries about a reported disconnect with fans but he is not sure how many people feel that way - well 95% (141 out of 148 people) who have so far voted on this forum have no confidence in the chief executive which should give a clue that this is not a small problem. The last two sets of OxVox updates, whilst trying to remain diplomatic, are likewise screaming of their frustration and disappointment with the club hierarchy. It is utterly amazing that not one single person on this forum has said (from all that I’ve read anyway) a single positive thing about Adam Benson while many have expressed hugely negative opinions of him. Yet we are still bizarrely entrusting our commercial future - in effect the club’s viability - to someone who has alienated his customers and yet whose performance Tim writes glowingly about.
Grant revealed that he asked for a fan engagement strategy from the management team before the start of the season and here we are more than 8 months (and counting) later and we might be about to see something (coincidentally on the eve of the forum) after no engagement with fans during the intervening period. How can such under performance and delay be tolerable? Repeating the TW/AB line about acting like a higher league club and the potential benefits of a Fan Advisory Board just sets alarm bells ringing.
Grant tried to address the ridiculously high turnover of staff as reflecting positive change conveniently ignoring the well known (and referenced on here) reasons for many of the (non playing side) departures. Wool being pulled over his eyes by senior management because he is not around enough or deliberate revisionism?
So the real question is, will Grant be the solution as chairman and do what needs to be done in relation to the off-field management of the club, or will he become part of the problem by backing them for too long as he did with Karl Robinson?
The jury is very much out.