General Dan Harris - Leaving

thegrumpyporter said:
Ryan's got a blank post with a like from you, maybe he posted and deleted
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I took that as Ryan saying 'I'm not saying anything', which I liked. Not sure if there was anything posted on there originally however.
 
yellowbow said:
My concern, IF Fowler comes in, and its because he's a mate of KR, is that it demonstrates further how omnipotent Robinson is at our football club. That he is in fact first team coach, DoF and head of recruitment at a time when he's demonstrating that he's not exactly flourishing in his basic role.
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as opposed to Mark Thomas whose job title is Head of Recruitment?
 
werthersoriginal said:
Not quite sure I know what you’re worrying about, he’s an ex England striker and may well be able to pass on some good stuff, or use his connections to help in other ways? It doesn’t sound sinister or immoral to me, without knowing any details
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My point is about the current direction of the club.

Over the past few years, I've really enjoyed how we've plucked talent from lower down the pyramid, from over in Ireland, or out the academy of a Premier League team and turned them into million pound players. The exception to that over the last few years is when Clotet was just signing players who may have been good 10 years ago.

I know we have still picked up players like McGinty who will hopefully come good, but there has seemingly been a shift away from what has served us fantastically well, to a policy where we are just getting fed players from New Era agency, or simply re-signing players we've had here before. We've seemingly moved from low risk/high reward to high risk/low reward. The hard work to uncover a rough diamond seems to have been replaced with just getting in people KR already knows, often at a considerably higher cost and with much less success. I don't feel like it's value for money at all - quite the opposite. We've moved away from impartial, calculated, analytical thinking and are now shooting from the hip and are doing things that we've long laughed at other clubs for doing. Christ, we had a lucky escape with Defoe fairly recently as well.

If it does turn out the rumours are true and Dan Harris has left because of KR's influence in bringing in Fowler instead, then although it may work out in some regards, it also feels like we've just abandoned a formal structure for what Robbo thinks is best, and based on the success of our more recent transfers, I worry if that's really the best thing for our club.
 
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Osei Yaw said:
My point is about the current direction of the club.

Over the past few years, I've really enjoyed how we've plucked talent from lower down the pyramid, from over in Ireland, or out the academy of a Premier League team and turned them into million pound players. The exception to that over the last few years is when Clotet was just signing players who may have been good 10 years ago.

I know we have still picked up players like McGinty who will hopefully come good, but there has seemingly been a shift away from what has served us fantastically well, to a policy where we are just getting fed players from New Era agency, or simply re-signing players we've had here before. We've seemingly moved from low risk/high reward to high risk/low reward. The hard work to uncover a rough diamond seems to have been replaced with just getting in people KR already knows, often at a considerably higher cost and with much less success. I don't feel like it's value for money at all - quite the opposite. We've moved away with impartial, calculated, analytical thinking and are now shooting from the hip and are doing things that we've long laughed at other clubs for doing. Christ, we had a lucky escape with Defoe fairly recently as well.

If it does turn out the rumours are true and Dan Harris has left because of KR's influence in bringing in Fowler instead, then although it may work out in some regards, it also feels like we've just abandoned a formal structure for what Robbo thinks is best, and based on the success of our more recent transfers, I worry if that's really the best thing for our club.
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Yes agree about our transfers, I assume the model is still going but hopefully we’ll soon return to snapping up good young players to develop.

An awful lot of ifs around, let’s see what Fowler’s involvement might be.
 
werthersoriginal said:
Yes agree about our transfers, I assume the model is still going but hopefully we’ll soon return to snapping up good young players to develop.

An awful lot of ifs around, let’s see what Fowler’s involvement might be.
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Yeah, appreciate there are a few 'ifs' and it might not be as the rumours suggest.

However at the very least, we can still question the logic in throwing thousands of pounds a week at players with questionable recent history. Especially when it feels like the obvious thing was just to continue what we had been doing well and just fix the glaringly obvious issues in the squad from previous seasons. Still, that bit has been done to death so I'll leave it there and just grumble to myself.

Grumble grumble.
 
Manorlounger said:
It would appear that Helen Masters has now "protected" her tweets. Only accredited "followers" can view.
Make of that what you will.
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Mmm, not sure that too much credence should be taken of these kind of protected tweets
There are some questions that you would hope that the Board are asking but alleged tweets from a mother whose son has been released?
 
Foley said:
Mmm, not sure that too much credence should be taken of these kind of protected tweets
There are some questions that you would hope that the Board are asking but alleged tweets from a mother whose son has been released?
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A woman who is very much part of EB Charging?
 
The Academy Manager role was advertised last week. Details on OWS. Would imply speculation around RF academy is just that.

www.oufc.co.uk

VACANCY: Academy Manager

Oxford United are seeking to appoint an Academy Manager to oversee the management, strategic development, and operations of the club’s Category 3 Academy.
www.oufc.co.uk www.oufc.co.uk

The spec implies the role is part of the Technical Committee and reports into the board through that Committee.

Screenshot_20220823-090715_Drive.jpg
 
It doesn't say the technical committee reports to the board.

Who's on this Technical Committee anyway? Has there ever been an announcement?
 
guyellow said:
The Academy Manager role was advertised last week. Details on OWS. Would imply speculation around RF academy is just that.

www.oufc.co.uk

VACANCY: Academy Manager

Oxford United are seeking to appoint an Academy Manager to oversee the management, strategic development, and operations of the club’s Category 3 Academy.
www.oufc.co.uk www.oufc.co.uk

The spec implies the role is part of the Technical Committee and reports into the board through that Committee.

View attachment 9955
Click to expand...

Box ticking exercise in advertising it.
There is very much a preferred candidate, if they do or don't get it, there will be very interesting questions created either way.
 
Osei Yaw said:
My point is about the current direction of the club.

Over the past few years, I've really enjoyed how we've plucked talent from lower down the pyramid, from over in Ireland, or out the academy of a Premier League team and turned them into million pound players. The exception to that over the last few years is when Clotet was just signing players who may have been good 10 years ago.

I know we have still picked up players like McGinty who will hopefully come good, but there has seemingly been a shift away from what has served us fantastically well, to a policy where we are just getting fed players from New Era agency, or simply re-signing players we've had here before. We've seemingly moved from low risk/high reward to high risk/low reward. The hard work to uncover a rough diamond seems to have been replaced with just getting in people KR already knows, often at a considerably higher cost and with much less success. I don't feel like it's value for money at all - quite the opposite. We've moved away from impartial, calculated, analytical thinking and are now shooting from the hip and are doing things that we've long laughed at other clubs for doing. Christ, we had a lucky escape with Defoe fairly recently as well.

If it does turn out the rumours are true and Dan Harris has left because of KR's influence in bringing in Fowler instead, then although it may work out in some regards, it also feels like we've just abandoned a formal structure for what Robbo thinks is best, and based on the success of our more recent transfers, I worry if that's really the best thing for our club.
Click to expand...

‘The model’ is still in operation but I can’t help feel that it has been side-lined by KR. McGinty and Smyth are the latest two to come off the conveyor belt, however one is going to see his chances limited by virtue of his position and the other appears to be behind 17 year olds in the pecking order. Previously, when we knew someone was going to depart we had their replacement in house, waiting in the wings (not literally, Karl) to replace the outgoing player, eg, Brannagan signed in January 2018 to replace Ledson who departed in the summer of that year.

KR did say in one interview that he wanted us to step up and start acting like a ‘top 30’ club which to me sounded like he was frustrated with losing players. For a club of our size and with precious few revenue streams outside of ticket sales and owner benevolence, the model is necessary. It’s the best thing to happen to the club since we got back into the league. No one looked to Oxford for potential signings from 1999 to 2016 (aside from Dexter Blackstock and Dean Whitehead). Since 2016, we’ve sold players to the tune of £15m+. One minor regret is that we haven’t had a player who has truly kicked on again to command a really big ticket move and we get the benefit of a sell on (I’m thinking Ollie Watkins from Brentford to Aston Villa, where Exeter benefited greatly), but that’s me being greedy. KR isn’t stupid and he should know that it’s a necessity here.

I too am concerned that our transfer policy has deviated. For the first time in four seasons, we won’t have a CB to sell in the summer and that’s a tad worrying. In fact, I’m not entirely sure who the next sale will be. Goodrham if he impresses perhaps? Smyth if he ever gets a look in? The model is still there though and I hope someone at the club is keeping tabs on it so we don’t lose that lifeline altogether.
 
unification said:
‘The model’ is still in operation but I can’t help feel that it has been side-lined by KR. McGinty and Smyth are the latest two to come off the conveyor belt, however one is going to see his chances limited by virtue of his position and the other appears to be behind 17 year olds in the pecking order. Previously, when we knew someone was going to depart we had their replacement in house, waiting in the wings (not literally, Karl) to replace the outgoing player, eg, Brannagan signed in January 2018 to replace Ledson who departed in the summer of that year.

KR did say in one interview that he wanted us to step up and start acting like a ‘top 30’ club which to me sounded like he was frustrated with losing players. For a club of our size and with precious few revenue streams outside of ticket sales and owner benevolence, the model is necessary. It’s the best thing to happen to the club since we got back into the league. No one looked to Oxford for potential signings from 1999 to 2016 (aside from Dexter Blackstock and Dean Whitehead). Since 2016, we’ve sold players to the tune of £15m+. One minor regret is that we haven’t had a player who has truly kicked on again to command a really big ticket move and we get the benefit of a sell on (I’m thinking Ollie Watkins from Brentford to Aston Villa, where Exeter benefited greatly), but that’s me being greedy. KR isn’t stupid and he should know that it’s a necessity here.

I too am concerned that our transfer policy has deviated. For the first time in four seasons, we won’t have a CB to sell in the summer and that’s a tad worrying. In fact, I’m not entirely sure who the next sale will be. Goodrham if he impresses perhaps? Smyth if he ever gets a look in? The model is still there though and I hope someone at the club is keeping tabs on it so we don’t lose that lifeline altogether.
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Why would Karl want to deviate from the model - to have players for the 'here and now', you mean? I think he's trying to step up and sign better players, sure, but is maybe not sure how to go about it. It also looks like other clubs like MK have started to tap into our Irish market.
 
werthersoriginal said:
Why would Karl want to deviate from the model - to have players for the 'here and now', you mean? I think he's trying to step up and sign better players, sure, but is maybe not sure how to go about it. It also looks like other clubs like MK have started to tap into our Irish market.
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Indeed, maybe the "pressure" for imminent promotion means he wants players for this season rather than development options for the future?
 
i take it back to Mapp when he said words to the affect of other clubs are now fishing in the same waters. Despite criticism on here and elsewhere, i do think our recruitment team have indeed been ahead of the game with Ireland tapped into well before others who are now catching up.

As i said recently who's in charge of Passports at our club because a wider set of waters with which to fish is next surely.

We've already gotten a player who was in Bulgaria, albeit not a younster but perhaps our net has spread wider.
 
Very off topic, but I read that Chelsea or Manchester United are looking at Ivan Toney. Could be a big sell on for Peterborough if that comes off.
 
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