Manager/Coach Karl Robinson - Will he walk

greatunclekip said:

Id certainly trade them in to be higher in the league given that none of the money generated has been reinvested in the team, and actually maybe had a negative effect with fatigue etc.

Click to expand...

greatunclekip said:

Id certainly trade them in to be higher in the league given that none of the money generated has been reinvested in the team, and actually maybe had a negative effect with fatigue etc.

Click to expand...

werthersoriginal said:

Little Wycombe are doing brilliantly, and respect to them. But if they don’t get promoted do you think their supporters will have a meltdown?

Click to expand...

McXal said:

For what it’s worth - I think most would agree that, had we been offered this at the start of the season, most would have taken this situation in a heartbeat.

However, you’ve watched Oxford for a long time - surely you must at least understand some of this negativity. The Championship has been ‘the goal’ of the club for a long time. Fans were told it was the reason we had to leave our beloved Manor Ground and ship off to our concrete wind tunnel, 3-sided hellhole of a new home in the first place. You must know that, for clubs like Oxford, genuine chances to reach the Championship are precious and few. It isn’t hard to see how many fans could perceive that we, as a club, ‘cashed in’ one of those opportunities in January - rather than actively pursue it. Again, it’s not my money and I would much prefer us not to be saddled with piles more debt. But I can fully understand some of the negativity - when season ticket sales and 10k crowds were needed we were an ambitious, Championship-chasing club. But when push came to shove in January it was proven that, right now, we are not. Whether one accepts and understands the reasons or not...the apparent cashing in on something we as a fan base have been waiting almost 20 years for means I definitely get why fans are disappointed.

The second reason, I perceive, for this negativity is fan fear that rather than ‘building for the future’, this is a team at the end of its cycle. Baptiste, Whyte and Fosu gone. Eastwood, Brannagan and Dickie likely to follow in the summer. Mackie and Mousinho up there in years. How much will it take to prise Gorrin or Sykes away? It would be easier for fans to accept ‘building for the future’ had we not just sold a major asset, under long-term contract, on the last day of the window for a deal which - according to many sources of varying reliability - was market rate/decent / but hardly mind-blowing (and detrimental to our own short-term prospects to boot).

The issue, as I see it, is that there is currently as much evidence to service the fearful/negative agenda as there is to further your well-reasoned but I’m sure you’d freely admit, enormously positive one. My own view is that, whether intentional/disingenuous or not - the board certainly allowed the ‘ambitious, championship-seeking’ part of their agenda come to the fore whilst season tickets were needed, and through the first half of the season - and this ‘sustainability message’ has been more prominent since the turn of the year.

If nothing were to happen with us and we end in midtable irrelevance this season I certainly won’t be too disappointed. As I’ve said in other posts - for a club who weren’t in the football league a decade ago, big matches at the business end of League One are a joy to watch. But I certainly understand the frustration. No tangible news on the stadium (right now), a once in two decades chance of championship football frittered away, a team that is just as likely to be at the end of its cycle as it is being ‘built to the future’.

I can’t shake the feeling that this feels a whole lot like Daryl & Mapp’s last season. (But, again, I will freely concede there is as much evidence for that as there is for any other interpretation!!)

Click to expand...

McXal said:

And to give an idea of the size of the rebuild this ‘building for the future’ squad could realistically need in the summer if we fail to win promotion this season...

It’s not inconceivable - and even pretty realistic - to think that Eastwood, Brannagan and Dickie will all go. Surely one of Mackie or Mous (if not both) will go. Taylor may not sign, and if he has genuine aspirations of championship football probably won’t. We need to replace loanee talent like Browne & Holland too.

That would leave us needing the following:

1) a new starting keeper
2) a couple of fullbacks
3) a starting CB
4) a starting CM
5) a couple of attacking/wide midfielders
6) a starting striker

in essence - it is wholly likely the entire spine of the squad (plus some other positions) will need replacing. Maybe a few of the younger lads will come in (Jones, Berkoe, Sade, Atkinson), and Agyei is improving fast...but it isn’t a stretch to see how we could be needing a MAJOR overhaul this summer

Hence I go back to - is this really building for the future, or a team at the end of its cycle? And what is KR’s appetite to be part of that rebuild?

Click to expand...

werthersoriginal said:

Little Wycombe are doing brilliantly, and respect to them. But if they don’t get promoted do you think their supporters will have a meltdown?

Click to expand...

Oufcrealist said:

Yes, many of them will because of the position they are in and have been all season.
Part of the point I was making is that we are a smaller club than the ones you mention but we are bigger than Wycombe. And just because they/we are smaller clubs that shouldn't exclude any club from having promotion as an ambition. If not what's the point? Avoiding relegation year after year?

Click to expand...

Junior_1 said:

I’d have a decent bet that ‘Little Wycombe’ are spending close to, if not more than us... now where is FFP when you need them...

Click to expand...

Junior_1 said:

Slightly off topic.

But I’d love for Lofthouse to be given a go sooner rather than later.

For me, him and Nico will become regulars in the first team in the next year or two. Lofthouse also has that special ability of playing average but always popping up with goals. His time at Ox City is proving very worthwhile for all concerned.

He, along with Nico are defo very valuable players for us moving forward.

Click to expand...

Anthomic said:

Maybe the board should stop and think, it may not be a lot but we invest our money as well.
They will soon be trying to sell season tickets we can stop investing in the same way as they can.

Click to expand...

guyellow said:

Not sure if this will work, but it is extract of Karl on ifollow. He later says it's the best he's felt, he feels whole (or home, I can't always, get his accent!). Make of it what you will, of course the doomsters will see it as one thing, the positive bus as another.

VID-20200217-WA0004.mp4

MP4 File

1drv.ms

Click to expand...

RyanioBirdio said:

It’s a sure fire way to tread water and have the same mid-table season year after year. At some point you have to go, “This is the one season where nobody leaves and we add to what we’ve got”. You need to have one season out of every few where you have a go. If you don’t quite make it and sell them off anyway, so be it. Given who is left and their contract lengths etc, I think this season was much, much better equipped to be that season than the next one appears to be.

Click to expand...

Gary Baldi said:

Thanks. He touches a lot of very good points and thoughts that a lot of fans need to listen to and think on about how much has changed in such a short time.

ps. I did like the "when do I stop "half way through

Click to expand...

Marked Ox said:

Maybe they've been reinvested long term in the Academy, Training Ground, Staff as they have increased spending in that over the last few years.

Click to expand...

gingerox said:

View attachment 2956
KR has been backed into 4th favourite for Blackpool job, doubtful there's anything in it mind

Click to expand...