Oxford Ultras - Over & Out

I remember hanging flags up before a display, around a year or two ago, when the stadium manager Michael Doyle came up and started venting angrily about the wire installed on the back wall for flags. He ordered us to remove the wire immediately and was adamant it had never been there before stating "that he would know because it's his stadium". The wire had been installed about 4/5 years earlier!

Unfortunately it's all falling down now and in a terrible state, with some (literally) "ropey" repairs!
 
In a previous job I had some dealings with the current stadium manager, could be ok one day then go mental about nothing the next before acting completely normal again, it was a strange one and I got the feeling that I wasn’t the only one who found him hard work.
 
The council own sandy lane, which you can fit Charlton's ground into (try it on Google maps!). It's close to the ring road, also has an unused car park already on site behind Tesco, and a railway track running alongside for a potential stadium station. Just one idea what will never happen, but at least it's an idea! There are limited places around Oxford, I think that has untapped potential
A rather romantic view, no one is going to spend 10’s of millions of pounds just to build a football ground in our position, unless they can add on all the retail outlets around the ground they would struggle to recover their money, maybe that’s why the ice rink area is a priority venue.
 
A rather romantic view, no one is going to spend 10’s of millions of pounds just to build a football ground in our position, unless they can add on all the retail outlets around the ground they would struggle to recover their money, maybe that’s why the ice rink area is a priority venue.
Why is the ice rink area a priority venue?
 
A rather romantic view, no one is going to spend 10’s of millions of pounds just to build a football ground in our position, unless they can add on all the retail outlets around the ground they would struggle to recover their money, maybe that’s why the ice rink area is a priority venue.
I did say it was never going to happen in my post... :geek:
 
In a previous job I had some dealings with the current stadium manager, could be ok one day then go mental about nothing the next before acting completely normal again, it was a strange one and I got the feeling that I wasn’t the only one who found him hard work.
employed by the tax exile slum landlord....think most would go mental every so often? o_O
 
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There’s been H&S claims for years going on about what could/couldn’t be put on the back wall, when people could/couldn’t go up there.

It started off with a lot of black gorilla tape, then string etc. OxVox and I think Jo eventually sorted out the hooks but then we weren’t allowed anything to actually go between them (even garden twine) so they kind of became useless. There’s been times when there has been assistance (the room under the stand opposite the steward room in the east stand) to store stuff but there’s also been plenty of reluctance to help.

Having not done anything to help myself for over a few years I can imagine (and it certainly looked like) it got worse.

People like Tim who gave space to paint banners in the Priory marquee, Maurice, L&P who used to post on here, LR, Joe, and many others all helped in their own ways over the years I knew.

I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like trying to deal with some of the club now lol.
 
A rather romantic view, no one is going to spend 10’s of millions of pounds just to build a football ground in our position, unless they can add on all the retail outlets around the ground they would struggle to recover their money, maybe that’s why the ice rink area is a priority venue.

...or a conference centre
 
No - I’m calling you out. About time ?

You want me to prove that Eales ran off with the loot and left the club in the s**t? It's not provable - because I don't have access to the detailed financial information (or knowledge to interpret it - I am, as I keep saying, a non-ITK poster with working eyes and brain) and because we don't know whether the club is truly in the s**t - Tiger may turn out to be a deep-pocketed hero leading a team of crack financiers to take us on the journey of a lifetime.

But Eales was a dilletante owner who made claims and statements that he has failed to live up to - that have turned out to be lies. He bailed out with inelegant haste and doesn't care much whether the club is in the s**t now that he's got as much money out as he could.

What is undeniable is that Eales said that when he left he wouldn't leave the club in debt. Well that wasn't true and he had not intention in the settlement of holding to that statement: the club has (had) a charge of £4.2m to Eales' companies, not Tiger - the club, the club has had to swallow the settlement of the arbitration with Kasstad, plus the WPL debt situation that I don't fully understand.
Has Eales left the club in debt when he promised he would not? Yes he has. Was he laughing all the way to the bank? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had a little giggle about it.

You also made the more interesting statement that "Eales was a good owner". At least there's some merit in the claim and, again, a final analysis can't be made till the Tiger dynasty finally shows us what it's worth. My view, in a nutshell is that on the positive side we got: promotion, the best football for decades, 2 visits to Wembley and a few of us got free pints. On the negative side we got: lumbered with an incompetent manager, placed in a fight we didn't need and couldnt win with Stadco, a depleted and disheartened off-field management, alienated elements of the fanbase (Ultras, Mixter, ...), and the club loaded with debt and sold to a mystery consortium led by a person whose previous interaction with a UK football club was orchestrated as a property deal that relieved that club of a fortune.

Does that make him a good or bad owner? People will make up their own minds and express their opinions - we've certainly suffered a lot of shouting about what he's done for the club. In my opinion he hasn't done anything for the club - he's done it for himself - from the shiny new trainset with Ashton & Appleton, his cringe-making Mike Ashley populism, the scramble to get out, flag-gate, fibs about training facilities, the club's best interests and the exit with bag of swag. He's not your mate, fellow Oxford supporters, and he never was.
 
Really sorry to hear Ultras are finishing! The problem is that whoever hires staff to man entrances etc. are not getting people who know and understand the club. When I went to pick up my tickets at the match last Saturday there was a ‘bruiser’ on the door stopping people getting in unless you were collecting tickets. A lady by me asked the guy if he had seen Rosie as she was meeting him. He didn’t have a clue who Rosie was and even when he was told Peter Rhodes Brown he still didn’t know!!
 
Really sorry to hear Ultras are finishing! The problem is that whoever hires staff to man entrances etc. are not getting people who know and understand the club. When I went to pick up my tickets at the match last Saturday there was a ‘bruiser’ on the door stopping people getting in unless you were collecting tickets. A lady by me asked the guy if he had seen Rosie as she was meeting him. He didn’t have a clue who Rosie was and even when he was told Peter Rhodes Brown he still didn’t know!!
elements employed by OUFC are doing their best via a combined effort to engage with supporters to improve the matchday experience, its a crying shame that a freelance employee of OUFC tasked with stadium safety uses /abuses his position to bully paying customers of OUFC ... why, why, why at OUFC doesnt the right hand communicate with the left hand? or is the aforementioned freelance employee an absolute law unto himself?

incidently @Pooleox did you get the jacket number of the unhelpful bruiser you encountered? id numbers of stewards must be clearly displayed...matchday stewards have to comply with the requirements as set out in the green guide ...and there are ways to ensure any steward who doesnt in dealt with accordingly

wonder if the freelance matchdaay employee has gone back to scums owners bouncers for OUFC matchday stewards .Again?
 
What is undeniable is that Eales said that when he left he wouldn't leave the club in debt. Well that wasn't true and he had not intention in the settlement of holding to that statement: the club has (had) a charge of £4.2m to Eales' companies, not Tiger - the club, the club has had to swallow the settlement of the arbitration with Kasstad, plus the WPL debt situation that I don't fully understand.
Has Eales left the club in debt when he promised he would not? Yes he has. Was he laughing all the way to the bank? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had a little giggle about it.

actually what he said is that he wouldn't leave the club with any debt incurred under his watch. at the point eales took over, of course, we already had substantial debts, so the promise was never to leave the club debt free.

whether or not he stuck to his word or not won't be clear until we see the accounts of course, and many people will at that point say this is water under the bridge. and the point you bring up about the way the sale of the club has been structured probably makes getting a clear answer to whether or not he sticks to his word harder again to discern, but this forum's accountants will no doubt be able to help us there.

anyway, a small detail (albeit an important one i think), and i agree with the broad analysis you give about the situation.
 
if he was a steward, with no clearly visible id number on display, he was in breach of all manner of clauses in the green guide
 
You want me to prove that Eales ran off with the loot and left the club in the st? It's not provable - because I don't have access to the detailed financial information (or knowledge to interpret it - I am, as I keep saying, a non-ITK poster with working eyes and brain) and because we don't know whether the club is truly in the st - Tiger may turn out to be a deep-pocketed hero leading a team of crack financiers to take us on the journey of a lifetime.

But Eales was a dilletante owner who made claims and statements that he has failed to live up to - that have turned out to be lies. He bailed out with inelegant haste and doesn't care much whether the club is in the s**t now that he's got as much money out as he could.

What is undeniable is that Eales said that when he left he wouldn't leave the club in debt. Well that wasn't true and he had not intention in the settlement of holding to that statement: the club has (had) a charge of £4.2m to Eales' companies, not Tiger - the club, the club has had to swallow the settlement of the arbitration with Kasstad, plus the WPL debt situation that I don't fully understand.
Has Eales left the club in debt when he promised he would not? Yes he has. Was he laughing all the way to the bank? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had a little giggle about it.

You also made the more interesting statement that "Eales was a good owner". At least there's some merit in the claim and, again, a final analysis can't be made till the Tiger dynasty finally shows us what it's worth. My view, in a nutshell is that on the positive side we got: promotion, the best football for decades, 2 visits to Wembley and a few of us got free pints. On the negative side we got: lumbered with an incompetent manager, placed in a fight we didn't need and couldnt win with Stadco, a depleted and disheartened off-field management, alienated elements of the fanbase (Ultras, Mixter, ...), and the club loaded with debt and sold to a mystery consortium led by a person whose previous interaction with a UK football club was orchestrated as a property deal that relieved that club of a fortune.

Does that make him a good or bad owner? People will make up their own minds and express their opinions - we've certainly suffered a lot of shouting about what he's done for the club. In my opinion he hasn't done anything for the club - he's done it for himself - from the shiny new trainset with Ashton & Appleton, his cringe-making Mike Ashley populism, the scramble to get out, flag-gate, fibs about training facilities, the club's best interests and the exit with bag of swag. He's not your mate, fellow Oxford supporters, and he never was.

Best post of all time, this.
 
You want me to prove that Eales ran off with the loot and left the club in the st? It's not provable - because I don't have access to the detailed financial information (or knowledge to interpret it - I am, as I keep saying, a non-ITK poster with working eyes and brain) and because we don't know whether the club is truly in the st - Tiger may turn out to be a deep-pocketed hero leading a team of crack financiers to take us on the journey of a lifetime.

But Eales was a dilletante owner who made claims and statements that he has failed to live up to - that have turned out to be lies. He bailed out with inelegant haste and doesn't care much whether the club is in the s**t now that he's got as much money out as he could.

What is undeniable is that Eales said that when he left he wouldn't leave the club in debt. Well that wasn't true and he had not intention in the settlement of holding to that statement: the club has (had) a charge of £4.2m to Eales' companies, not Tiger - the club, the club has had to swallow the settlement of the arbitration with Kasstad, plus the WPL debt situation that I don't fully understand.
Has Eales left the club in debt when he promised he would not? Yes he has. Was he laughing all the way to the bank? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had a little giggle about it.

You also made the more interesting statement that "Eales was a good owner". At least there's some merit in the claim and, again, a final analysis can't be made till the Tiger dynasty finally shows us what it's worth. My view, in a nutshell is that on the positive side we got: promotion, the best football for decades, 2 visits to Wembley and a few of us got free pints. On the negative side we got: lumbered with an incompetent manager, placed in a fight we didn't need and couldnt win with Stadco, a depleted and disheartened off-field management, alienated elements of the fanbase (Ultras, Mixter, ...), and the club loaded with debt and sold to a mystery consortium led by a person whose previous interaction with a UK football club was orchestrated as a property deal that relieved that club of a fortune.

Does that make him a good or bad owner? People will make up their own minds and express their opinions - we've certainly suffered a lot of shouting about what he's done for the club. In my opinion he hasn't done anything for the club - he's done it for himself - from the shiny new trainset with Ashton & Appleton, his cringe-making Mike Ashley populism, the scramble to get out, flag-gate, fibs about training facilities, the club's best interests and the exit with bag of swag. He's not your mate, fellow Oxford supporters, and he never was.


Thanks for the response. Now my turn.

The club had a plan under D Eales and to an extent the plan worked well. He understood how critical supporters were to a football club and he also understood the football business. He appointed a great manager and played the transfer market excellently.

No ‘dilettante’ in my book.

He also put up a fair amount of money to invest in the club and on leaving endeavoured to get it back. Is that a crime?

In any event the club was in a better position financially - generally - then it was when he came in. We were in a higher division and had had more valuable saleable assets.

On the down side Kassam had him for breakfast . Would appear to have been poor judgment on Eales’s part to get involved in the rent dispute.

The jury is very firmly out as to whether he sold on to a superior custodian of the club of course.

History will reveal him to be a good owner.

Constrained of course by Kassam.
 
Thanks for the response. Now my turn.

The club had a plan under D Eales and to an extent the plan worked well. He understood how critical supporters were to a football club and he also understood the football business. He appointed a great manager and played the transfer market excellently.

No ‘dilettante’ in my book.

He also put up a fair amount of money to invest in the club and on leaving endeavoured to get it back. Is that a crime?

In any event the club was in a better position financially - generally - then it was when he came in. We were in a higher division and had had more valuable saleable assets.

On the down side Kassam had him for breakfast . Would appear to have been poor judgment on Eales’s part to get involved in the rent dispute.

The jury is very firmly out as to whether he sold on to a superior custodian of the club of course.

History will reveal him to be a good owner.

Constrained of course by Kassam.

Who buys in to a loss making football club expecting to get ANY of their money back let alone ALL of it and then some? We have a history of it. The last owner we had who lost a packet that I can think of is Robin Herd.

Kassam - got all his money back and is continuing to rinse us on an annual basis
Lenaghan - got virtually all if not all his money back
Eales - has got all his money back (at least)

And over that period of time we've lost what £5 - £10 mil.

Eales must be laughing his tits off.
 
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