Ex Player Rob Dickie

warksox said:
Surely the opposite is true. Yes, Derby and Swansea are much bigger cities than Oxford. But throw in the population of the wider counties and Oxon, at c700K, is twice the size of West Glamorgan and pretty much on a par with Derbyshire.
So Jim Smith was right! We have the potential to be as big or bigger than both those clubs.
Click to expand...

The problem is that Oxfordshire isn’t a hot bed of football fans IMO. Look at the semi pro/grass football in the county and it is full of people who clearly love to play the game. In other parts of the country you have areas that have more people that prefer to go and watch football than they do to play it.

Reading, Swindon, Us, Wycombe, Northampton, Cheltenham and MK Dons don’t get massive attendances for the championship.

Reading get the highest at just under 15K on average.

We have a loyal but modest fan base.
 
warksox said:
Surely the opposite is true. Yes, Derby and Swansea are much bigger cities than Oxford. But throw in the population of the wider counties and Oxon, at c700K, is twice the size of West Glamorgan and pretty much on a par with Derbyshire.
So Jim Smith was right! We have the potential to be as big or bigger than both those clubs.
Click to expand...
The Swansea Bay City area alone has a population of 685000 without including West Glamorgan. Derbyshire has almost 800 000. I'm pretty sure if you asked any football fan, other than some Oxford fans, who is the smallest club out of those three, they would all say us. Buckinghamshire has a population of 800 000 plus according to wiki. Wycombe has the potential to be much bigger than Swansea or Derby. If you heard a Wycombe fan say that it would sound ridiculous right? Potential or not, we are not as big as Swansea or Derby in terms of our football club.
 
Last edited:
Steve Gilbert said:
The problem is that Oxfordshire isn’t a hot bed of football fans IMO. Look at the semi pro/grass football in the county and it is full of people who clearly love to play the game. In other parts of the country you have areas that have more people that prefer to go and watch football than they do to play it.

Reading, Swindon, Us, Wycombe, Northampton, Cheltenham and MK Dons don’t get massive attendances for the championship.

Reading get the highest at just under 15K on average.

We have a loyal but modest fan base.
Click to expand...

It could be that, but I think it could be down to not capturing young fanbases early. From 2001-2016, so 15 years, we were languishing in League Two and the Conference. That coincided with the invincible Arsenal side, the prime of Sir Alex's Manchester United, oil rich Chelsea, Liverpool winning the Champions League, Spurs putting together some decent European & domestic runs and Man City getting their millions and winning the Premier League. How many 5-15 year olds would spurn them to support their local side that lose as many games as they win in the fourth tier?

The only way to create a larger fanbase is to be in the big divisions for either a long or memorable time. I can understand what you're saying about people preferring to play rather than watch, but I don't believe that if conditions aren't right that we can't match some of the London clubs when it comes to attendance. There are so many sides in just one city (albeit a large one), so surely we could attract similar crowds from a whole county if we were regularly in the Championship or top flight?
 
Followtheox1 said:
The Swansea Bay City area alone has a population of 685000 without including West Glamorgan. Derbyshire has almost 800 000. I'm pretty sure if you asked any football fan, other than some Oxford fans, who is the smallest club out of those three, they would all say us. Buckinghamshire has a population of 800 000 plus according to wiki. Wycombe has the potential to be much bigger than Swansea or Derby. If you heard a Wycombe fan say that it would sound ridiculous right? Potential or not, we are not as big as Swansea or Derby in terms of our football club.
Click to expand...
The Swansea Bay City Area is not Swansea, it is a region that covers half of South Wales. It includes West Glamorgan, Carmaerthenshire and Pembrokeshire.
1598730334507.png
 
warksox said:
The Swansea Bay City Area is not Swansea, it is a region that covers half of South Wales. It includes West Glamorgan, Carmaerthenshire and Pembrokeshire.
View attachment 4449
Click to expand...
I thought Swansea was its own unitary authority within the Swansea bay area? Have I got that wrong? In any case as you point out its a big catchment area for Swansea. Pretty much them and Cardiff in South Wales. As per my other points, potential or no potential, I'm pretty sure for most football fans Oxford fans saying we are as big Swansea or Derby sounds as deluded as a Wycombe fan saying it about them.
 
QPR will probably pay him 3 times what he is on at Oxford. Its naive to believe that he wouldn’t take that.
Footballers are one injury away from it all ending so they have to grab what they can. I just hope that they hurry up and get on with it so we can move on.
 
Followtheox1 said:
Like all threads, it can lead to further discussion from points raised about the original issue. In this case someone mentioning QPR was a backwards step for Dickie. If we are not allowed to widen the discussion in this way, then apologies!
Click to expand...

Followtheox1 said:
I thought Swansea was its own unitary authority within the Swansea bay area?
Click to expand...

I mean, extend it as far as you like, but that's a stretch from Rob Dickie being linked with QPR.
 
I think it's crazy to say that QPR is a backwards step from Oxford - that really is a rose-tinted specs approach. They've a much more successful recent past than us, and draw a much bigger fanbase.

However, I think it is true that QPR themselves are a smaller club than some of the others that Dickie has been linked to (e.g. Leeds, Forest, WBA........)

Now it could be that none of those clubs are truly interested. But if they are, then QPR seems an odd choice for Rob. As I pointed out earlier on the thread, they are definitely now a bottom half Championship team when you consider just about any metric (on the pitch, attendances, revenues, wage bill etc. etc.)
 
tonyw said:
I think it's crazy to say that QPR is a backwards step from Oxford - that really is a rose-tinted specs approach. They've a much more successful recent past than us, and draw a much bigger fanbase.

However, I think it is true that QPR themselves are a smaller club than some of the others that Dickie has been linked to (e.g. Leeds, Forest, WBA........)

Now it could be that none of those clubs are truly interested. But if they are, then QPR seems an odd choice for Rob. As I pointed out earlier on the thread, they are definitely now a bottom half Championship team when you consider just about any metric (on the pitch, attendances, revenues, wage bill etc. etc.)
Click to expand...

Would he go straight into the first team at Leeds, Forest, West Brom? Would he be able to commute or would he have to move his young family away? Would his wages be pretty much the same where ever he goes?

Rob Dickie wants to be playing regular football, it's the reason he came to us. He also has a young child and his family are all fairly local. So there are many reasons why playing for QPR is much better than being on the bench at Forest for example.
 
Steve Gilbert said:
The problem is that Oxfordshire isn’t a hot bed of football fans IMO. Look at the semi pro/grass football in the county and it is full of people who clearly love to play the game. In other parts of the country you have areas that have more people that prefer to go and watch football than they do to play it.

Reading, Swindon, Us, Wycombe, Northampton, Cheltenham and MK Dons don’t get massive attendances for the championship.

Reading get the highest at just under 15K on average.

We have a loyal but modest fan base.
Click to expand...

They never used To when they were at Elms park it’s only since someone spent money that they got interested and got premiership but if they were relegated to league 1 as they were looking good for that a couple of seasons back, there attendances wouldn’t have been much more than ours if that.
 
With the slight dampening of expectations of the potential fee earlier, I caught myself feeling slightly aggrieved with Dickie that he appears to have chosen to be going to QPR. This is for no other reason than, had he gone elsewhere, it seems likely we might have been able to squeeze a higher fee out of the buying club (especially from a Newcastle or a West Brom). I suspect others have too, given the comments about QPR being an insufficiently 'big' club.

But I had a stern word with myself: Dickie doesn't 'owe' us anything. He needs to go where his career will best progress, and I can see why that may be QPR. The only reason we're getting anything for him at all this summer is because he agreed to a contract extension last summer, before then being our POTS in a year when we were an incorrect penalty decision away from being promoted. He has handled himself, in my view, with impeccable professionalism and respect for our club throughout. Wherever he decides to go, he goes with my absolute best wishes.

I think despite myself though I will feel aggrieved if the fee is below 1.5m. I know we tend to over-value our players on here but he really does seem a superb footballer who has the capacity and intelligence to improve further. I appreciate that with the contract length and the corona situation we probably won't be able to push for a price that truly reflects his quality, but I would hate, following the Baptiste sale in January and, arguably, the Whyte price last summer, to feel like we are a club that gets pushed around by the Championship big boys. And I think a price less than that, even with sell-ons and other clauses, would constitute getting taken for a bit of a ride again.
 
Reading between the lines on the post match show with Robyn Cowen, Jerome etc sounds as if the figures that were banded about were too low.
Doesn’t sound like anything has been accepted.....yet.
 
We should be bigger than Swansea and the same as Derby. The difference isn’t the people of Oxford, it’s success. We haven’t had wonder owners like Jenkins & Morris otherwise we’d pull huge crowds in higher leagues. Only have to look at our Wembley crowds.. & away crowds to the likes of Boro & Newcastle recently.
 
I'll be back teaching a bit of geography to year five next week. I think I'll start with population....
 
oxajh said:
We should be bigger than Swansea and the same as Derby. The difference isn’t the people of Oxford, it’s success. We haven’t had wonder owners like Jenkins & Morris otherwise we’d pull huge crowds in higher leagues. Only have to look at our Wembley crowds.. & away crowds to the likes of Boro & Newcastle recently.
Click to expand...

Having won the cup final how many times was our ground full after?

so some 3.000 went to Boro for a cup tie yet where were they for our next home game against the League leaders when still in with a chance of promotion?

i am afraid everything now is about the top 5 or 6 in the premier league, take a look at the Championship clubs they are not a big draw because people get wall to wall tv with all the Top clubs and that's without even discussing the overstretched leisure pound.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

stokeu
General Rob Dickie transfer
2 3 4
Replies
71
Views
10K
tonto
T
H
General Rob Dickie & Elliott Moore
5 6 7
Replies
127
Views
16K
dickwalton1964
D
TailsWeWin
Rob Dickie
2 3 4
Replies
71
Views
18K
Leysboy
Leysboy
Left Wing Cross
General Rob Atkinson
2 3 4
Replies
65
Views
9K
werthersoriginal
W
M
General Rob Hall - Club Podcast
Replies
8
Views
2K
Marked Ox
M
Back
Top Bottom