General Fans Forum 12/12/2022

[OUFCGav]

Id think that its likely undersoil/ pitch heating* will be part of any new stadium design?


* if memory serves(?) there is the pipes for undersoil heating at the breeze block- however, like (many) other aspects there , the owner skimped on the actual build, and it was never actually connected to any heating system

originally pipes were there but wiring not from memory. but i believe they were dug out when the pitch underwent a deep renovation a few years ago. (might be wrong, trying to remember hazy conversations with a pitch maintenance company rep.

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

All other questions answered here:

Fan Forum Extra Time

Last week Oxford United held a fans forum at the Mercure Oxford Hawkwell House Hotel in Iffley, where fans were invited to ask questions to a panel that featured Chairman Grant Ferguson, CEO Tim Williams, Chief Strategy Officer Niall McWilliams, Head Coach Karl Robinson, Women’s Manager Liam Gilbert

www.oufc.co.uk

 

[uptheus]

All other questions answered here:

Fan Forum Extra Time

Last week Oxford United held a fans forum at the Mercure Oxford Hawkwell House Hotel in Iffley, where fans were invited to ask questions to a panel that featured Chairman Grant Ferguson, CEO Tim Williams, Chief Strategy Officer Niall McWilliams, Head Coach Karl Robinson, Women’s Manager Liam Gilbert

www.oufc.co.uk

Still not acknowledging the poor summer window or the number of high risk players we signed which has ultimately cost us another poor start.

And in terms of the lack of progress on the pitch over the last 5 seasons, still saying that we have progressed.

 

[Scotchegg]

The summer transfer window and high risk players were both addressed on the night. They may not have given the answers that people wanted but their position wasn't going to change between the one given on the night and the one in writing a week later.

 

[greatunclekip]

Karl key to the future, doing a fantastic job. Excellent! I wish I had Tim and Grant as my CEO and Chairman, End of Year reviews would be much less stressful!

 

[uptheus]

The summer transfer window and high risk players were both addressed on the night. They may not have given the answers that people wanted but their position wasn't going to change between the one given on the night and the one in writing a week later.

Addressed on the night to a certain level, but not able to question or respond to their answer.

We need to get it right going forward and I have grave reservations as it appears we’ve not learnt from our last 2 or 3 windows.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Still not acknowledging the poor summer window or the number of high risk players we signed which has ultimately cost us another poor start.

I am very much hoping that what they say in public is not the same as they are saying to the 'recruitment team' (and anyone who thinks he can do the job better on his own) before the January window and (heaven forbid he is still here) and the summer.

 

[Fred]

Still not acknowledging the poor summer window or the number of high risk players we signed which has ultimately cost us another poor start.

And in terms of the lack of progress on the pitch over the last 5 seasons, still saying that we have progressed.

So you don’t think stabilising the Club in div1 is progress? The previous 5 years we were below div1?

 

[Carpy]

So you don’t think stabilising the Club in div1 is progress? The previous 5 years we were below div1?

So the following happened in the last 5 seasons (plus this season so far)

17/18 - 16th
18/19 - 12th (we were 10th when Pep left)
19/20 - 4th
20/21 - 6th
21/22 - 8th
22/21 - 15th (I think we'll probably end up finishing 12th-10th)

So yes, we progressed under Karl in his first season, but since then, we've been on a steady decline under him, that really isn't progress. And let's not forget, each of those seasons by all accounts, the funding available has outpaced inflationary growth, at the moment it's a case of more money = worse outcome.

Pep delivered as much progress in terms of league position as Karl has, and I don't think anyone disagreed he was a flop.

Also, stabilising in League One was not our owners aim, promotion was, and 'progress' towards that really can't be something anyone is claiming at the moment.

 

[uptheus]

So you don’t think stabilising the Club in div1 is progress? The previous 5 years we were below div1?

No, I call it stabilising.

Would you call stabilising ourselves in League 2 after getting promotion from the Conference progress?

 

[DevilsAvocado]

So the following happened in the last 5 seasons (plus this season so far)

17/18 - 16th
18/19 - 12th (we were 10th when Pep left)
19/20 - 4th
20/21 - 6th
21/22 - 8th
22/21 - 15th (I think we'll probably end up finishing 12th-10th)

So yes, we progressed under Karl in his first season, but since then, we've been on a steady decline under him, that really isn't progress. And let's not forget, each of those seasons by all accounts, the funding available has outpaced inflationary growth, at the moment it's a case of more money = worse outcome.

Pep delivered as much progress in terms of league position as Karl has, and I don't think anyone disagreed he was a flop.

Also, stabilising in League One was not our owners aim, promotion was, and 'progress' towards that really can't be something anyone is claiming at the moment.

Blimey, well thats one way of looking at it i suppose.

Fwiw here is another way of looking at it.

Clotet had us in freefall, from 1st to 10th with a humiliating Wigan defeat sandwiched in between that, i feared for us. KR came
in and stabilised the ship, thats his 1st season. Not really sure where you are going with the Pep delivered as much progress in
terms of league position as Karl has ? Clotet delivered nothing, he was rightly ousted before the damage was terminal, he was
manager for 36 games of which we won 12 and i have no doubt that if he had stayed any longer his win percentage would be
even lower than 33.3%, for perspective KR sits at 41.3% with us.

His 2nd season we finished 12th, yea not great but i`m going to give him credit for inheriting a really poor squad that needed
a lot of re-building, maybe i`m being overly generous here ?

3rd season and his best as we made the POF

Can`t argue factually about the next 2 seasons being a steady decline, bit harsh imo as we have performed at equal to or slightly
above budget.

As for this season, honestly im still pretty confident we can make the playoffs, even a defeat at Ipswich wont change that as there
is a long way to go and a fair bit to be optimistic about.

 

[uptheus]

So you don’t think stabilising the Club in div1 is progress? The previous 5 years we were below div1?

No, I call it stabilising.

Would you call stabilising ourselves in League 2 after getting promotion from the Conference progress

 

[oufc1991]

2023 is going to be a great year to be an Oxford fan January will be a very good month

 

[holdsteady]

Blimey, well thats one way of looking at it i suppose.

Fwiw here is another way of looking at it.

Clotet had us in freefall, from 1st to 10th with a humiliating Wigan defeat sandwiched in between that, i feared for us. KR came
in and stabilised the ship, thats his 1st season. Not really sure where you are going with the Pep delivered as much progress in
terms of league position as Karl has ? Clotet delivered nothing, he was rightly ousted before the damage was terminal, he was
manager for 36 games of which we won 12 and i have no doubt that if he had stayed any longer his win percentage would be
even lower than 33.3%, for perspective KR sits at 41.3% with us.

His 2nd season we finished 12th, yea not great but i`m going to give him credit for inheriting a really poor squad that needed
a lot of re-building, maybe i`m being overly generous here ?

3rd season and his best as we made the POF

Can`t argue factually about the next 2 seasons being a steady decline, bit harsh imo as we have performed at equal to or slightly
above budget.

As for this season, honestly im still pretty confident we can make the playoffs, even a defeat at Ipswich wont change that as there
is a long way to go and a fair bit to be optimistic about.

The third season is the strangest in ours, and the football leagues history though, needs an asterisk by it as it was an incomplete season decided in the most contrived fashion to get a decision over the line, we will never know how that would of actually played out had it been allowed to run its course. Struggle to give him full credit for it, although its not a negative against him as you had to get in that position to benefit from that situation.

For me his best season is the following one where we made the play offs on the last day and then were knocked out by half time of the first leg against an admittedly very good Blackpool side. Never really pushed on the next season after falling away at the end (in a stronger league though so you could probably argue we were about par with the previous one) so he had earned another go.

What followed that has been a little bit of a disaster, the league is weaker than last season and we have gone backwards after a bad summer missing a real chance to progress, we had done the hard work (and Robinson deserves credit for it) of becoming genuine players in the division over the last 5 years and it just needed a really good summer to push on and get amongst the top teams this season, so it feels like rather than stabilising or progressing over the course of one transfer window we fell backwards.

 

[Symp59]

We have definately progressed this year as been disappointing but is improving I still think we will go very close to the play offs with a two or three good signings .We've played some great football over the last few seasons and the clotet comments sums it up.Lets be honest there's alot of talk about Appleton he will probably get the sack from Blackpool by the end of the season .We have the core of a good squad not big enough so let's see what happens .When you listen to the reply at the fans forum the board expects more and let's hope it happens .Come on Oxford

 

[TailsWeWin]

So you don’t think stabilising the Club in div1 is progress? The previous 5 years we were below div1?

Yeah …. Let’s sit in League One for the foreseeable future and “stabilise “ ! No point in progressing: after all, we have the ideal manager to keep us in this league.

 

[Manorlounger]

After 5 years, expectations have dropped, enthusiasm has been sucked out, apathy has set in and the endless status quo of mediocrity has become the norm.
And some on here defend that status!

 

[DevilsAvocado]

The third season is the strangest in ours, and the football leagues history though, needs an asterisk by it as it was an incomplete season decided in the most contrived fashion to get a decision over the line, we will never know how that would of actually played out had it been allowed to run its course. Struggle to give him full credit for it, although its not a negative against him as you had to get in that position to benefit from that situation.

For me his best season is the following one where we made the play offs on the last day and then were knocked out by half time of the first leg against an admittedly very good Blackpool side. Never really pushed on the next season after falling away at the end (in a stronger league though so you could probably argue we were about par with the previous one) so he had earned another go.

What followed that has been a little bit of a disaster, the league is weaker than last season and we have gone backwards after a bad summer missing a real chance to progress, we had done the hard work (and Robinson deserves credit for it) of becoming genuine players in the division over the last 5 years and it just needed a really good summer to push on and get amongst the top teams this season, so it feels like rather than stabilising or progressing over the course of one transfer window we fell backwards.

Can`t argue with any of that tbh.

About this summer, i get why people are underwhelmed by what happened in the transfer window, imo trying to land
4 players on deadline day is just asking for trouble, going to go a bit soft on the club here as i think we changed our transfer
strategy and clearly struggled landing targets, add in that we were led to believe this was going to be a really good season it
has left people being deflated, i get it, and i hope the club learnt a few lessons, only time will tell on that one.

 

[TailsWeWin]

After 5 years, expectations have dropped, enthusiasm has been sucked out, apathy has set in and the endless status quo of mediocrity has become the norm.
And some on here defend that status!

Yup, it’s mind-boggling, isn’t it?!

 

[Yellow River]

The message is clear.

Promotion was and still is the target for this season, and the budget given should give us every opportunity to do so.
Robinson is being given the chance to fulfil the club‘s ambition for this season. He’ll be here unti the end of the season now.

Personally I think he’s fortunate to have that opportunity, he should’ve gone after the Wycombe or Peterborough games. The board are being very loyal, or possibly just pragmatic?

However now that the board have give Robinson ‘the vote of confidence, I sincerely hope we do get promoted this season, but I can’t see it, despite a poor League 1 this season, I feel we’ve left ourselves too much to do. Other teams will also be strengthening.

Recruitment in the summer was lazy and chaotic, January will be about correcting all of the mistakes. Should be interesting.

I hope Faz hangs around for a bit longer.