Tiger Update

Our sports science department has also crumbled in recent times. Or perhaps the adonis KR knows better? Pre game swimming and training session anyone... Our lads are knackered out at the halfway point of the campaign.

Accordingly to some we have a good squad!
 
Completely agree with this, and the idea that we’ll easily be able to regroup and bounce back is just unrealistic. Breaking down the ‘losing mentality’ at a club once it’s set in like rot can be extremely tough, time-consuming and costly - as the Wilder/Thomas/Leneghan and Appleton/Ashton/Eales administrations found.

But at the same time, can you blame fans for being resigned to going down? Given the utter paucity of any real tangible information around the future of our club, the plans for a sustainable future, and a prolonged period of being obviously and outright lied to by chairmen - not just Tiger - going back to the ‘three fee-paying players in January’ farce which realistically convinced Appleton it was time to go what other conclusion can fans reach?

All we have to go on is the crashing reality of what we see on the pitch, i.e. three goals from three strikers all season (only one of which is available), and probably another month before maybe a reinforcement arrives, our best defender going just short of temperamentally admitting he wants out on live radio, an ‘unbeaten run’ which didn’t actually contain that many league wins at all, a catastrophic first quarter of the season, and a festive trio of fixtures which saw 0 points and 0 goals, including a thrashing at the bottom club, which is nailed on relegation form. Oh, and the actions of our ‘eccentric’ (elusive, confusing, deliberately vague) chairman who delivered one of the most shambolic ‘welcome to the club’ pressers ever conceived and has followed that by overseeing a club barely away from the relegation zone at any point whilst repeatedly not paying tax bills.

I’m not saying it’s over - but the pressure on recruitment this month is immense. There’s time to turn it round - but it’s January now. Our abysmal form isn’t fluke or unlucky, it’s symptomatic of a bad team, an uneven squad and a losing mentality starting to set in. Those aren’t easily fixed.

What an absolutely brilliant post.
 
Too right. OK we may go down to Div4 again. But compared to watching us being completely outplayed at Salisbury in CW's first season? Or those woeful losses at Lewes and Hayes & Yeading? Or singing 'My garden shed is bigger than this' at Grays and realising that it actually was? Give me Div4 any day.

I remember people like you saying it would be good for us to get relegated from the now championship and that we’d come back stronger, well news for you, we’re still not there yet and that was 20 years ago.
 
I’m going to stick my neck on the line here and say things how I see them:

DE decides that, as the stadium and FK situation is more impossible than he initially thought, he can take the club no further and decides to cut his losses. He tries to sell the club to several people, but the likes of Sartori and SD decide the sums just don’t add up.

Tiger wants to own a football club and has a modest amount of capital available. Not enough to buy a club outright, maybe a couple of million, enough to cover running costs etc.

A deal is worked out with DE where money will be passed over to him with future players sold etc. Everyone is happy - DE will get money later down the line when, for a while he thought he was going to be stuck with the club and walks away with a sigh of relief, and Tiger can instantly win over the fans with a couple of signings with the money he has available

In the meantime, KR, fed up with the situation at Charlton, with the uncertainty there with the owners trying to sell, sees an opportunity at managerless Oxford United. An ideal situation for him living in MK

Maybe I’ve got Tiger wrong, but from the little I know about him, I can’t believe he’s got a vast database of knowledge regarding managers. Maybe he had fanciful ideas of bringing in a Kluivert for example but, KR, with his gift of the gab, gets in touch and persuades Tiger that he would be a ‘wow’ appointment, and just looking for an opportunity to be an all encompassing manager/coach/director of football within a ‘project’ somewhere. Tiger thinks, as he will be many miles away for most of the time, that KR is the ideal man to carry the responsibility of being his overall football ‘mogul’. KR is then left in charge of recruiting players, tactics, strategy, sports science etc

On a major positive front, Tiger and KR have a great United vision on promoting youth at the football club, something they have been very successful with and should be applauded for. How fortunate they’ve been in having Dan Harris overseeing this side of things however, is open to debate.

If any of these assumptions are true then nobody has done anything wrong but it would show a weak owner, not too powerful financially and a manager in place with too much power and completely bombproof no matter what his failings are. A worrying situation in our position. I might be wrong with the assumptions I’m making, I know there’s rumours that things are happening with the stadium side of things etc, but we’re nearly a year in to Tigers time as owner and all I see is a team in decline. If I’m wide of the mark and we see some decent team rebuilding this month and a steady rise away from the relegation zone then I’ll hold my hands up and admit it.

I’m an Oxford United fan, I love the club, I just want to see it succeed. I don’t care who that’s with, be it under Tiger and KR or anyone.
 
Tiger has NO real usable cash - that's why he has bought in the "deep pocketed" Erik but he's really only here to make money on property deals. We should ALL be really worried about this situation and press for our Chairman to be HONEST with us because he sure as hell takes us for idiots. This is not going to end well.
 
Tiger has NO real usable cash - that's why he has bought in the "deep pocketed" Erik but he's really only here to make money on property deals. We should ALL be really worried about this situation and press for our Chairman to be HONEST with us because he sure as hell takes us for idiots. This is not going to end well.

so in your opinion you would rather hear someone say it's all about the land guv?

someone "promised" to take us on a journey before and that one didn't go too well either

another had a 5 year plan

The last one was open and informed he didn't have the funds to sustain things if we reached the championship

as i've said elsewhere we have some fans falling for the hype of jim white and the sky mob with the jan window and expecting a splash the cash mentality when as is pointed out every year the better players are not often available

still there's still the mickey mouse cup that will keep the 20.000 + interested and they're not bothered about plans as they've got their day out to look forward to.
 
I honestly wonder what some of you expect. I get the criticism about communication, as it is poor and needs addressing and we all want a moan when the season doesn’t get well, which clearly it isn’t.

However beyond that I struggle.
I have followed Oxford since the early 90’s and we have barely spent a fee on a player in certainly the latter half of that time, yet here we are routinely paying significant figures for players (under Eales and now Tiger) and some of you go on as if we should be shelling out £1m deals in individual players. Frankly some of you need to give your heads a wobble

Robinson has come out on countless occasions and said there is significant money in the background, he even eluded to it at the end of today’s interview when he spoke about the fans. He was at Charlton previously and went through serious ownership issues, so either you believe he is clueless and can’t spot that tiger is a chancer with no prospects or cash (which given his background at charlton you would think he might be hyper aware of) or he has seen some guarantees or enough evidence to make him believe he will get significant backing in short and long term?

The youth set up is heavily supported and doing superbly, whilst being heavily funded by the new owners, but whenever that is referenced it is never seemingly creditted to the owner?

I get the issues around HMRC, the clubs league position and the communication, we shouldn’t shy away from raising the right and difficult questions and I think Oxvox have done a decent job of doing so. My concern is the village mob mentality on here from a group of posters who seemingly never have anything positive to say, disappear when results are good, but come out demanding change when we lose.

The last few years have been overwhelmingly positive, with two promotions and a few trips to wembley, this season looks tough, but there is time to turn it around, I wish people would get behind the side and the club and see where we are at end of the season.
 
I honestly wonder what some of you expect. I get the criticism about communication, as it is poor and needs addressing and we all want a moan when the season doesn’t get well, which clearly it isn’t.

However beyond that I struggle.
I have followed Oxford since the early 90’s and we have barely spent a fee on a player in certainly the latter half of that time, yet here we are routinely paying significant figures for players (under Eales and now Tiger) and some of you go on as if we should be shelling out £1m deals in individual players. Frankly some of you need to give your heads a wobble

Robinson has come out on countless occasions and said there is significant money in the background, he even eluded to it at the end of today’s interview when he spoke about the fans. He was at Charlton previously and went through serious ownership issues, so either you believe he is clueless and can’t spot that tiger is a chancer with no prospects or cash (which given his background at charlton you would think he might be hyper aware of) or he has seen some guarantees or enough evidence to make him believe he will get significant backing in short and long term?

The youth set up is heavily supported and doing superbly, whilst being heavily funded by the new owners, but whenever that is referenced it is never seemingly creditted to the owner?

I get the issues around HMRC, the clubs league position and the communication, we shouldn’t shy away from raising the right and difficult questions and I think Oxvox have done a decent job of doing so. My concern is the village mob mentality on here from a group of posters who seemingly never have anything positive to say, disappear when results are good, but come out demanding change when we lose.

The last few years have been overwhelmingly positive, with two promotions and a few trips to wembley, this season looks tough, but there is time to turn it around, I wish people would get behind the side and the club and see where we are at end of the season.
Good post that. Coyy
 
What an absolutely brilliant post.
I honestly wonder what some of you expect. I get the criticism about communication, as it is poor and needs addressing and we all want a moan when the season doesn’t get well, which clearly it isn’t.

However beyond that I struggle.
I have followed Oxford since the early 90’s and we have barely spent a fee on a player in certainly the latter half of that time, yet here we are routinely paying significant figures for players (under Eales and now Tiger) and some of you go on as if we should be shelling out £1m deals in individual players. Frankly some of you need to give your heads a wobble

Robinson has come out on countless occasions and said there is significant money in the background, he even eluded to it at the end of today’s interview when he spoke about the fans. He was at Charlton previously and went through serious ownership issues, so either you believe he is clueless and can’t spot that tiger is a chancer with no prospects or cash (which given his background at charlton you would think he might be hyper aware of) or he has seen some guarantees or enough evidence to make him believe he will get significant backing in short and long term?

The youth set up is heavily supported and doing superbly, whilst being heavily funded by the new owners, but whenever that is referenced it is never seemingly creditted to the owner?

I get the issues around HMRC, the clubs league position and the communication, we shouldn’t shy away from raising the right and difficult questions and I think Oxvox have done a decent job of doing so. My concern is the village mob mentality on here from a group of posters who seemingly never have anything positive to say, disappear when results are good, but come out demanding change when we lose.

The last few years have been overwhelmingly positive, with two promotions and a few trips to wembley, this season looks tough, but there is time to turn it around, I wish people would get behind the side and the club and see where we are at end of the season.


You are right to highlight the fact that we have seen two promotions and two trips to Wembley finals, however they were achieved under a different owner and management structure. We have seen some excellent games this season, however it does not excuse the fact that we are in the bottom 4 and extremely short on experienced quality players for this level. Let’s see what the next four games bring and what signings we can get during this window.
 
I honestly wonder what some of you expect. I get the criticism about communication, as it is poor and needs addressing and we all want a moan when the season doesn’t get well, which clearly it isn’t.

However beyond that I struggle.
I have followed Oxford since the early 90’s and we have barely spent a fee on a player in certainly the latter half of that time, yet here we are routinely paying significant figures for players (under Eales and now Tiger) and some of you go on as if we should be shelling out £1m deals in individual players. Frankly some of you need to give your heads a wobble

Robinson has come out on countless occasions and said there is significant money in the background, he even eluded to it at the end of today’s interview when he spoke about the fans. He was at Charlton previously and went through serious ownership issues, so either you believe he is clueless and can’t spot that tiger is a chancer with no prospects or cash (which given his background at charlton you would think he might be hyper aware of) or he has seen some guarantees or enough evidence to make him believe he will get significant backing in short and long term?

The youth set up is heavily supported and doing superbly, whilst being heavily funded by the new owners, but whenever that is referenced it is never seemingly creditted to the owner?

I get the issues around HMRC, the clubs league position and the communication, we shouldn’t shy away from raising the right and difficult questions and I think Oxvox have done a decent job of doing so. My concern is the village mob mentality on here from a group of posters who seemingly never have anything positive to say, disappear when results are good, but come out demanding change when we lose.

The last few years have been overwhelmingly positive, with two promotions and a few trips to wembley, this season looks tough, but there is time to turn it around, I wish people would get behind the side and the club and see where we are at end of the season.
Last season was tough too. We haven't been above 16th place since KR took over!!
 
All gone very quiet regarding Stadium and Kassam. Is that for a reason?
Could people cope with Firoz coming back on board if there was a joint effort to move the club forward?
 
Something something... anyone but KR would have flourished under the ideal way the club has been run... something something should have appointed Bellamy.... Something something maybe the players need some bullying... zzzzzz
 
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What is that in relation to?

Delighted that one of my tweets have made it om here..... Lol

The exchanges started about potential strikers I'd like us to consider, a reply from someone suggested a) KR not been backed and b) a team rebuilding is needed. I disputed the lack of backing but suggested we could rebuild with a new manager.

Si Lenagan replied to my tweet about a new manager
 
Delighted that one of my tweets have made it om here..... Lol

The exchanges started about potential strikers I'd like us to consider, a reply from someone suggested a) KR not been backed and b) a team rebuilding is needed. I disputed the lack of backing but suggested we could rebuild with a new manager.

Si Lenagan replied to my tweet about a new manager

To be honest I don't think a change of manager will solve our issues. The issues are about the running of the club not so much about how the first team is being managed.
 
To be honest I don't think a change of manager will solve our issues. The issues are about the running of the club not so much about how the first team is being managed.

Appreciate your view. Mine remains this manager is under achieving, plenty of first team issues that fans ARE NOT seemingly privvy to stem from KR and his style, he has been backed and his recruitment is poor in the main, don't like the throwing of players under the wheels. The list could go on.

As for the Boardroom and the MD, i accept, that is a real issue too. Communication is disgusting and so are the misleading soundbites .......the imaginary £1m rent being a particularly good example.
 
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