Manager/Coach Karl Robinson

[Victor1986]

He is so full of himself. He single handedly masterminded a complete s**t show tonight.

 

[Millman]

Its very strange regarding Karl. He is not a bad manager but not a great one either. If he should leave I wouldn't be totally gutted nor terribly pleased. with him I doubt we will get relegated but I also doubt we will seriously challenge for promotion (a flirt with the plays offs buts that's it). He has some positives and some glaring faults. He never seems to learn from his mistakes and does not seem to be improving over time. His performance against budget here is about average (or slightly above average but not enough to propel us forwards). He works better when the team is dictated by lack of choice, as he takes an ice age to work out his best team. Often the squad has a great first team in it but little depth. His signings are hit and miss (some great, some poor) and he is often tactically out thought. All this just makes him a good average.

Some would argue that but last year we reached the play offs. I would counter with I am not sure we would have had we had a full season. His teams do mostly alright against the lower teams (where our great runs come from), but not so much in the big games. All of the play off performances weren't great in the challenging games when they needed to be.

He is nowhere near bad enough to sack nor great enough to worry about he leaving. We now know what we are getting from Karl and I doubt we will see much in a variation. I just hope we get a season where it all clicks, the teams falls into place on day one, and he makes more good choices than poor ones then we could really see something good.

 

[m]

Its very strange regarding Karl. He is not a bad manager but not a great one either. If he should leave I wouldn't be totally gutted nor terribly pleased. with him I doubt we will get relegated but I also doubt we will seriously challenge for promotion (a flirt with the plays offs buts that's it). He has some positives and some glaring faults. He never seems to learn from his mistakes and does not seem to be improving over time. His performance against budget here is about average (or slightly above average but not enough to propel us forwards). He works better when the team is dictated by lack of choice, as he takes an ice age to work out his best team. Often the squad has a great first team in it but little depth. His signings are hit and miss (some great, some poor) and he is often tactically out thought. All this just makes him a good average.

Some would argue that but last year we reached the play offs. I would counter with I am not sure we would have had we had a full season. His teams do mostly alright against the lower teams (where our great runs come from), but not so much in the big games. All of the play off performances weren't great in the challenging games when they needed to be.

He is nowhere near bad enough to sack nor great enough to worry about he leaving. We now know what we are getting from Karl and I doubt we will see much in a variation. I just hope we get a season where it all clicks, the teams falls into place on day one, and he makes more good choices than poor ones then we could really see something good.

Spot on.

 

[Paul Cannell]

I agree with the general thrust of @Millman 's argument.

I wonder if being a middling third division side is in the board's plans? If so they've got their man.

 

[OX14]

Its very strange regarding Karl. He is not a bad manager but not a great one either. If he should leave I wouldn't be totally gutted nor terribly pleased. with him I doubt we will get relegated but I also doubt we will seriously challenge for promotion (a flirt with the plays offs buts that's it). He has some positives and some glaring faults. He never seems to learn from his mistakes and does not seem to be improving over time. His performance against budget here is about average (or slightly above average but not enough to propel us forwards). He works better when the team is dictated by lack of choice, as he takes an ice age to work out his best team. Often the squad has a great first team in it but little depth. His signings are hit and miss (some great, some poor) and he is often tactically out thought. All this just makes him a good average.

Some would argue that but last year we reached the play offs. I would counter with I am not sure we would have had we had a full season. His teams do mostly alright against the lower teams (where our great runs come from), but not so much in the big games. All of the play off performances weren't great in the challenging games when they needed to be.

He is nowhere near bad enough to sack nor great enough to worry about he leaving. We now know what we are getting from Karl and I doubt we will see much in a variation. I just hope we get a season where it all clicks, the teams falls into place on day one, and he makes more good choices than poor ones then we could really see something good.

This consortium coming in might have other ideas, if they dont see Karl the man to make us a top 30 club then he will be off. How many more years does he need to build a team to get out this league?

 

[Leysboy]

Does anyone believe KR will get us promotion next season with a much larger budget....

I’m not sure I do!

 

[horseman]

Oh this reliance on the Money men to Buy us success

All this writing off of current players and manager, let's see the reaction when we get players that have come for the Money because wake up that's what lay ahead.

 

[oufc1991]

But if a player is only interested in the money I personally wouldn’t mind as long as they do the business on the pitch do you think the players we currently have are here for the money or because they want to play for Oxford

 

[OxfordBoy]

Oh this reliance on the Money men to Buy us success

All this writing off of current players and manager, let's see the reaction when we get players that have come for the Money because wake up that's what lay ahead.

Just because we up our budget doesn’t mean we have to go the washed up big wage route, we can still keep the model we have now of signing talented young up and comers, we could just compete for the better ones that are currently choosing other teams over us

Barnsley beat us to several signings by paying that bit more (and being a more attractive club to join) and have had a couple of promotions and now flirting with the Championship playoffs

Everyone knows Peterborough’s model, and while they’ve had less on field success, they’ve also got and had crazy amounts of young talent there

Both of them invest far more than we have on young, talented players and have shown it works

Considering almost all of the ‘new’ proposed owners have been involved with us when we’ve sold the likes of Whyte, Dickie etc I don’t see why they’d suddenly decide to abandon this and go for the Grigg’s of the world instead

 

[horseman]

But if a player is only interested in the money I personally wouldn’t mind as long as they do the business on the pitch do you think the players we currently have are here for the money or because they want to play for Oxford

Do the 2 always go together then?

Let's put it like this all the stick certain players get now + the ott reaction to a defeat, wait for the reaction in similar circumstances whilst earning far more

folk complain that we don't get business done early which can be for many factors but do you really want players who are only saying yes due to wages, be careful what you wish for. Just because you offer more money doesn't make the team/squad/work ethic better or guarantee success so people will need to manage their expectations

 

[bazzer9461]

This consortium coming in might have other ideas, if they dont see Karl the man to make us a top 30 club then he will be off. How many more years does he need to build a team to get out this league?

We’ve been building so far back I’ve forgotten, with Lenegan it was a 5 year journey but that was refreshed every year with Eales yes he got us promotion but that was it he struggled after that. Kassam well he just isn’t worth talking about, Herd made promises but couldn’t deliver. Maxwell did but at what cost to the staff under his employ. Things look slightly different now with the news that a consortium want to come in with casts amount of money but that is for a shinny new stadium and I would like to think they would try and our a team together that are worthy of a new stadium.
Yes I would build for the new stadium but we need to start building at the end of this season.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Its very strange regarding Karl. He is not a bad manager but not a great one either. If he should leave I wouldn't be totally gutted nor terribly pleased. with him I doubt we will get relegated but I also doubt we will seriously challenge for promotion (a flirt with the plays offs buts that's it). He has some positives and some glaring faults. He never seems to learn from his mistakes and does not seem to be improving over time. His performance against budget here is about average (or slightly above average but not enough to propel us forwards). He works better when the team is dictated by lack of choice, as he takes an ice age to work out his best team. Often the squad has a great first team in it but little depth. His signings are hit and miss (some great, some poor) and he is often tactically out thought. All this just makes him a good average.

Some would argue that but last year we reached the play offs. I would counter with I am not sure we would have had we had a full season. His teams do mostly alright against the lower teams (where our great runs come from), but not so much in the big games. All of the play off performances weren't great in the challenging games when they needed to be.

He is nowhere near bad enough to sack nor great enough to worry about he leaving. We now know what we are getting from Karl and I doubt we will see much in a variation. I just hope we get a season where it all clicks, the teams falls into place on day one, and he makes more good choices than poor ones then we could really see something good.

Yes I think that is fair. In his favour it’s rarely boring and we have played some lovely football at times

 

[mooro]

Its very strange regarding Karl. He is not a bad manager but not a great one either. If he should leave I wouldn't be totally gutted nor terribly pleased. with him I doubt we will get relegated but I also doubt we will seriously challenge for promotion (a flirt with the plays offs buts that's it). He has some positives and some glaring faults. He never seems to learn from his mistakes and does not seem to be improving over time. His performance against budget here is about average (or slightly above average but not enough to propel us forwards). He works better when the team is dictated by lack of choice, as he takes an ice age to work out his best team. Often the squad has a great first team in it but little depth. His signings are hit and miss (some great, some poor) and he is often tactically out thought. All this just makes him a good average.

Some would argue that but last year we reached the play offs. I would counter with I am not sure we would have had we had a full season. His teams do mostly alright against the lower teams (where our great runs come from), but not so much in the big games. All of the play off performances weren't great in the challenging games when they needed to be.

He is nowhere near bad enough to sack nor great enough to worry about he leaving. We now know what we are getting from Karl and I doubt we will see much in a variation. I just hope we get a season where it all clicks, the teams falls into place on day one, and he makes more good choices than poor ones then we could really see something good.

Some of this nearly man tag came from his time at MK Dons...
In 2009-10 Paul Ince took them to 12th in League 1
Robbo then took over and managed to get them to 5th in 2010-11 and again in 2011-12, losing in the play-off semis both times.
They then finished 8th in 12-13 and 10th in 13-14 (after being in the top 5 for most of the season)
It was only in 14-15 that he finally managed promotion by snatching 2nd on the last day of the season.
He could only manage 23rd in the Championship in 15-16 before leaving them in Oct 2016 with the club sat in 19th place in League 1.

He joined Charlton in Nov 16 with them in 15th and finished the 16-17 season in 13th.
He had them in 9th when he left to join Oxford in March 2018.

18-19 saw us finish 12th, as opposed to 16th the previous season, and of course we all know what happened last season.

So, he has a very good record of finishing in the top half of League 1 and has managed to finish in the top 5 on four out of 8 League 1 campaigns so far, but only once achieving promotion, and never via the playoffs.

I love the continuity of keeping the same man in charge over time, and I love what he does for the club in the community and as a family within itself, the eye to youth, the feel for the place he resonates, etc, etc, so I very much remain in the pro-Robbo camp despite some of his quirks (slow starts, overthought team selections, saying what he is thinking and leaving himself open to forensic analysis of every utterance).
It would however be nice to be able to feel a touch more confidence that he can inspire a team across the line when it comes to the big crunch times...so what better time to start than a successful culmination of our last 13 games of this season (or ten if he fancies pulling off a miracle)....

 

[holdsteady]

He is not going anywhere this season, one of the safest jobs in football. Pretty much agree with the above, he is a decent manager - not outstanding or anything above decent but not as bad as some make out.

If fans are back next season and we start the season as badly as we normally do under him it may get interesting thoughthe credit he has gained from his time here is not that much that he is immune from abuse, falling behind yet again will P**s a lot of people off.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

I think if there is a board takeover with an eye to spending large amounts of money on a stadium and he starts next season like he did the last ones, then he is toast. They aren't going to want to have a shiny new stadium with a L2 team in it - and we can't rely on a winning streak like we had earlier this season to get us out of the mire every time!

 

[unification]

Just because we up our budget doesn’t mean we have to go the washed up big wage route, we can still keep the model we have now of signing talented young up and comers, we could just compete for the better ones that are currently choosing other teams over us

Barnsley beat us to several signings by paying that bit more (and being a more attractive club to join) and have had a couple of promotions and now flirting with the Championship playoffs

Everyone knows Peterborough’s model, and while they’ve had less on field success, they’ve also got and had crazy amounts of young talent there

Both of them invest far more than we have on young, talented players and have shown it works

Considering almost all of the ‘new’ proposed owners have been involved with us when we’ve sold the likes of Whyte, Dickie etc I don’t see why they’d suddenly decide to abandon this and go for the Grigg’s of the world instead

I said this point a few weeks back - we're a little big 'low risk, low return' at present.

Think Ryan Ledson. Signed for buttons and recouped £750k when sold. Think Ivan Toney. Signed for £450k, sold for £5m. Oof.

It's very easy to sit here and spend other people's money, but I would like to see us up our bullishness in the transfer market when we can. Bringing in six figure sums for our assets keeps us ticking over. Nail a few seven figure sum and you keep the wolves from the door for a lot longer. A bit more speculating to accumulate is needed. You will have some that don't work (both Hanson and Marvin Johnson cost us six figure sums and one certainly has worked better than the other), but secure a good sale from two to three of them and they more than cancel out the errors.

The model is a terrific one. I'd just like to see it sized up a touch to show we mean business.

 

[Paul Cannell]

For the avoidance of doubt, Ledson signed for us in August 2016 and was sold in May 2018. He was neither found nor developed by our existing manager.

 

[Mad Dog]

Football fans in long memories shocker!!! I think the ability to hold a grudge for decades over a minor incident is a vital skill for a football fan. (Bloody Lineker, playing on and scoring following a blatant Oxford penalty being turned down at Goodison in 1985/6, never forgiven him )

I know what you mean, I still remember travelling down to Southampton in 1990 for an FA cup game, they beat us 1-0, and Neil Ruddock scored the goal, totally ruined the day.

I've never forgiven him, fat bastard!

 

[OxfordYankee]

For the avoidance of doubt, Ledson signed for us in August 2016 and was sold in May 2018. He was neither found nor developed by our existing manager.

But they are both Scousers, so it would be foolish to rule out KR making a claim on RL’s development based upon a shared school drop-off or knowledge of Liverpool.

 

[Osleroad]

I think if there is a board takeover with an eye to spending large amounts of money on a stadium and he starts next season like he did the last ones, then he is toast. They aren't going to want to have a shiny new stadium with a L2 team in it - and we can't rely on a winning streak like we had earlier this season to get us out of the mire every time!

Breaking news alert..stadium not finished or likely not even started by 2022