General General Feeling

Left Wing Cross said:
Really? Loan players aren't necessarily cheap.
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Well there's no initial transfer fee. And for young players like Holland we will only be paying a proportion of their wages, and even then only for five months or so. Maybe not cheap - certainly cheaper.
 
uptheus said:
Follow on from Karl’s comments after Saturday’s game about the accolades the club has achieved this season so far e.g. getting to the quarter finals of the League Cup, 5 round draw of the FA Cup, beating West Ham 4-0, drawing with Newcastle away and doing well in the league.

Despite all this, I still don’t feel the belief and togetherness we had during the League 2 promotional season e.g. Austria tour, beating Swansea getting promotion, so wondered why not?
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Interested in how you were feeling this time in 2010 ? Suspect you weren't happy !

You need to contextualise - we've had a good decade on the whole and are handily placed in League One for a promotion push in the next 18 league games with a quality squad, shorn of some key players due to knocks and niggles recently. We were close to getting into Round Five of the FA Cup on Saturday and knocking out Newcastle next week may not surprise many people. We reached the Quarter finals of the League Cup!

We've got a young, enthusiastic, progressive manager who plays attractive, attacking football in the main. Injuries have derailed us a bit but overall it's a great time to be an OUFC fan. We could all but dream about where the club is now compared to a few years ago.

We've just taken 3,710 fans to away match in the North East (again).

Some of us need to get real.
 
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I think we have to enjoy the journey whatever the eventual outcome. We may or may not get promoted, we may or may not win the FA Cup (!) - but rather than worrying about it too much, just live in the moment and have fun watching some decent young players trying to play football in the right way.
 
ZeroTheHero said:
Well there's no initial transfer fee. And for young players like Holland we will only be paying a proportion of their wages, and even then only for five months or so. Maybe not cheap - certainly cheaper.
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I believe that some clubs charge a "loan fee" as part of the agreement. I have no knowledge of whether we have paid fees for these players but it is possible.
 
For me, it's beginning to feel that we will come up just short of the playoffs - a point, maybe two. That in itself does not fill me with dread; it would still be a great season and one of the most enjoyable that I can recall that didn't end up with a prize. If 8th place had been offered me in August, I would have taken it.

What really gives me a sense of foreboding is the comments that will then inevitably come about having poor players, bad management, lack of investment, broken promises etc and these all being mushed together into some huge dirty snowball that will dampen the ebullience of what should be regarded as a great season and to use this substantive progress as a platform to build for an even better season.

I fear that we are going to get polarised into being lauded as a success or a failure over one point......
 
Lincolyellow1 said:
And doing it in league 1.............
Appleton‘s team was doing it in a league lower.......!
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Appleton’s team lost its star players (Roofe, COD, Hylton, Baldock etc) and still finished 8th in League One, got to the fifth round of the FA Cup and achieved a second Wembley final in a row, all on a budget smaller than the one we have this season.

Let’s see how this season ends up before we start declaring we’ve never had it so good. At the moment his team’s achievements are yet to be bettered.
 
still think it will come down to the last game against Bolton and we’ll just fall short with the missed opportunity of playing against their kiddies team at the start of the season being the difference.
but it’s been an exciting season so far
 
For me it is because the current owner had a rocky start and I am still unclear what the strategy and end game is. And despite clear improvement on and off the pitch, this means there remains a niggling element of doubt. When Eales and Ashton came in communications improved massively, and that continued until things got iffy at the end. They sold us the journey.
 
There’s probably a little bit of waiting for the bubble to burst. We’re Oxford fans and we’ve had our fair share of heartache and not quite good enough moments.

Yes we’re in a great position in the league but the top 10 or so places are so tight and our performances since Christmas have been a little hit and miss to say the least.

Im sure there’s a lot of fans that are sitting and hoping or trying not to get their hopes up as we move towards the business end of the season. It’s been a very good transfer window and I think even bringing in a recognised striker to support the squad we have at the moment would raise optimism.

I’m quietly excited and optimistic that we could be in the championship this season. I’m also bricking it that we’ll have gone from 2nd at Christmas to 8th or 9th and it’ll be another one of those ‘what could have been’.
 
I think it’s due to everyone thinking this squad should be promoted and right now we sit outside the play offs. As good as these last 3/4 months have been, I’ll be very annoyed if we don’t at least have a play off semi final at the end of the season. Also. If we don’t get promoted, everyone knows this whole squad is going to be broken up.. Dickie, Baptiste, Gorrin, Brannagan Fosu etc
 
Sarge said:
maybe loanees (returning to parent clubs) being included would make it 5 (or more) 'out' of the squad? :unsure:
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But that happen most years with most clubs. The point was that if not promoted "everyone knows" that we'll lose Dickie, Baptiste, Brannagan, Gorrin and Fosu.
 
No idea where this season's journey is going to end up but it's a million times better than being out of the cups in November with just mid table mediocrity or a relegation scrap to endure.
 
I think it's a recency bias thing. We've been generally poor (/ not up to our previous standards) for about a month now. But I for one was f*****g GASSED in that two day period where we signed all those players, and I'm sure we'll be hitting those heights again when we have a full team back (CB and JH over their injuries, particularly). We're only just over half way through the season, there's a long way to go, and while having those injuries during this period has been frustrating, I think it will prove, as I have said before, to have been a huge slice of luck. If CB had been playing through January at the level he had been previously, he wouldn't still be here now. He makes the whole side better, so Dickie and Baptiste would probably have been even better too, and could reasonably have been off. Short term loss for long term gain. I for one am still feeling very optimistic - there's a reason so many opposing fans and managers have said we're the best team they've played this season.
 
My Issue is with the board as a whole and their motives I dont like it that there is seemingly huge finance avaliable for a stadium and land deal but not for giving the squad a little extra promotion push when I can see it slipping away.
 
I think this season has been staggering! some of the football has been sublime! Imagine how well we could have done if we had had an average number of injuries? Without looking at the stats we have not had many better seasons at home. You can never tell the future but if only half of the injured players come back, supplemented by the new loans players who I don't think have played much this season we could easily be top 3?
 
On the pitch: we are well in the mix for a play-off place so I guess that many of us have some adrenalin about that, a combo of enthusiasm and apprehension in case we don't recover our best form in time. Comes with the territory of being a footie fan.

Off the pitch: it feels like limbo until we get some definite news on the stadium situation, not just assurances that secret negotiations are going on behind whatever closed doors.
 
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