League One survival?

Pete Burrett said:
I agree that plenty of people on here have always been concerned about Mr Eales' 'slippery' (© Mr Cannell) nature and thus remained sceptical about his longer term aims for the club. Some of the chumminess of the oft-referred to 'hot dog buying man on the terrace' was rather cringeworthy, although you can understand any scepticism of the more optimistic fans being assuaged by Wembley trips and a promotion.

Yet, despite these concerns, there has been no significant ground swell of supporters mentioning the 'R' word until very recently. I'm a recent convert myself - until yesterday's results I simply didn't think the maths could overcome us.

There is no doubt now though, that we are in a dogfight, and enter that fight in poor form and possibly lacking the guts to escape it. Relegation as such wouldn't be so much of a fear if you believed a rapid return to L1 might follow, but with an unknown new man in charge, who's to say whether a suitable investment plan exists? The bizarre delay in appointing a manager hints that no coherent plan is yet in place.Tiger might be new, but we don't have time to mess about.

If we settle into the L2 doldrums I do fear for our immediate future. A decade or more of further under-achievement might loom.
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Odd indeed and tend to agree - the two weeks is up now, there were no signs of anyone watching on from the stands, people who we assumed were on the shortlist of 4 have denied even being called. New names? Ghost managers? I just have a horrible feeling that the board have been waiting for a win to then create a hype and feel-good factor and then we do nothing until the end of the season (Tiger continues to pick the team). The problem is that Clothed and Faz are not motivators. You can hear that in their voices. They couldn't get excited if the next win depended on it and "negative energy" has been building up from all sides. It needs releasing. At the very least Tiger should pull in some sports psychologists and get into the heads of these guys, who aren't the brightest. They may also be so traumered that all of them want offski ASAP. I just don't think they believe in themselves and havent got a clue what they are supposed to be doing (but then that would just show that the caretaker team are on trip ponies and can't manage - if they don't do what you practice on the training ground then I would say they also can't coach!) All of our players are limited - you need to point in one direction, wind up, and then they go.... but no one is giving them direction - at least not effectively anyway. Looks like Faz is using Clothed's "magic box" to pick the starting 11, then spins the wheel to decide on formation. 4-4-2 v something that works. He has a random alarm which goes off between 4 and 4.45 and gets a text advising on substituions - even if it means taking off a forward when we are behind. The most perplexing thing, if I read it right, about what is going on the behind the scenes fiasco is that seemingly we are still owed 4.2m for the "star" players we sold? Who defers payments when there is demand from more than one club and you don't need to sell? C'mon Tiger, pull your finger out. Actions speak louder than words and your new toy is broken
 
You may be right that he might have realised that the enthusiasm for the club to push on was waning but I don't think it fair to say he jumped ship. He got the chance to vastly increase his salary at a Premiership club where he is clearly making an impact. Looks like an excellent career move to me.

But would he have gone if he had be given the money he was promised to get us promoted again? The money was there but it went into DE’s back pocket.
 
This season has been a shambles. The hunt for the new manager still going on. It’s going to be atough ask for us to stay up this season. We need three more wins out of twelve to stay up. Squeaky bum time
 
Trainingcone said:
This season has been a shambles. The hunt for the new manager still going on. It’s going to be atough ask for us to stay up this season. We need three more wins out of twelve to stay up. Squeaky bum time
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3 wins? Do you think we’re capable?
 
Trainingcone said:
Only if a new manager joins us this week. Preferably Monday or Tuesday. Can we sign on loan players this month?
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Only out of contract players can be signed somdony matter which the manger is he has to work with a lot of s**t and no were not capable
 
In some ways we are even worse off than when we dropped out of the league. At least then we could bring on loan players to prop up the ship. It was unfortunate that the ones Jim brought in then were no better than the ones we already had. Now we are stuck with the misfits who either can't or won't perform at the required level. Manager or not in January, I still don't get why we didn't make more effort to fill the obvious gaps.
 
FalmouthOx said:
I am struggling to see a role for Faz. Clearly cannot motivate the players who are headless chickens, absolutely dire selection - we need some continuity with players playing together in same position - seems all that matters is who looks good in training during the week. Coaching? We are clueless at set pieces, corners and can't even defend a long cross. Epic Fail. Need a new face with an assistant/coach quick but it would be interesting to hear who is on the shortlist since all the usual suspects seemingly havent been called. Phil Brown until the end of the year
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I dont agree. I feel he is an excellent & experienced coach alongside CA. He isnt a manager. He never wanted to be a manager. He hasnt been a manager. AKA. I think OUFC need a manager (who can man manage players & games) ASAP.
 
carefreeoufc said:
There have been people on here (for a while) who have suggested relegation. As usual though there’s a larger group of people who seemingly ignore (whether purposely or not) what is happening on and off the pitch.

In our best form we’ve been inconsistent at best, however, since before Christmas we’ve been plain crap!!! People have ignored it and what’s going on behind the scenes which must have some impact on performances however small.

There seems to be a complacency on this forum over recent years where there’s no such thing as a must win. Mathematics seems to take over instead of people actually looking at our performances.

I’ll be amazed and very, very happy if we stay up. If we are relegated then some serious questions need to be asked!
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I agree. The wins @ home vs Blackpool and Doncaster were not convincing performances. I grant you MK DONS was a good performance but we look like they are relegation bound.
 
FalmouthOx said:
Odd indeed and tend to agree - the two weeks is up now, there were no signs of anyone watching on from the stands, people who we assumed were on the shortlist of 4 have denied even being called. New names? Ghost managers? I just have a horrible feeling that the board have been waiting for a win to then create a hype and feel-good factor and then we do nothing until the end of the season (Tiger continues to pick the team). The problem is that Clothed and Faz are not motivators. You can hear that in their voices. They couldn't get excited if the next win depended on it and "negative energy" has been building up from all sides. It needs releasing. At the very least Tiger should pull in some sports psychologists and get into the heads of these guys, who aren't the brightest. They may also be so traumered that all of them want offski ASAP. I just don't think they believe in themselves and havent got a clue what they are supposed to be doing (but then that would just show that the caretaker team are on trip ponies and can't manage - if they don't do what you practice on the training ground then I would say they also can't coach!) All of our players are limited - you need to point in one direction, wind up, and then they go.... but no one is giving them direction - at least not effectively anyway. Looks like Faz is using Clothed's "magic box" to pick the starting 11, then spins the wheel to decide on formation. 4-4-2 v something that works. He has a random alarm which goes off between 4 and 4.45 and gets a text advising on substituions - even if it means taking off a forward when we are behind. The most perplexing thing, if I read it right, about what is going on the behind the scenes fiasco is that seemingly we are still owed 4.2m for the "star" players we sold? Who defers payments when there is demand from more than one club and you don't need to sell? C'mon Tiger, pull your finger out. Actions speak louder than words and your new toy is broken
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Deferred payments are normal business practice ref all player transactions. I would like to know who is "Clothed"?
 
I have been and I am really concerned about the size of nature of the playing squad. Biggest in L1. I would imagine there are unhappy cliques.

I am pained when I look back at the team that ended last season. It picked itself. Quality players. Leaders. Men. And a strong manager. A team of confident characters. AKA Chris McGuire. Chey. Curtis. Edwards. Hall. Johnson. Lunny. McA etc...
 
I’m not sure if anyone else feels this, but my over riding feeling is now one of apathy.

Listening to one of the podcasts over the weekend talking about the West Ham mess on Saturday....’the problem is, if you over promise and under deliver there will be issues’.

Well, that’s what we have right here, right now. Told one thing when in reality the opposite was happening behind the scenes.

EDIT: shall we list the things we were promised in the summer to amuse ourselves!?
 
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Anthomic said:
Why did Tiger P**s off to Thailand for a week when there was urgent business to attend to here, is he treating this as a hobby?
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Difficult to recruit/head hunt a new manager when in Asia. Odd. That said I have met Tiger and I feel hes an "interesting" character to say the least.
 
Shosho said:
I’m not sure if anyone else feels this, but my over riding feeling is now one of apathy.

Listening to one of the podcasts over the weekend talking about the West Ham mess on Saturday....’the problem is, if you over promise and under deliver there will be issues’.

Well, that’s what we have right here, right now. Told one thing when in reality the opposite was happening behind the scenes.

EDIT: shall we list the things we were promised in the summer to amuse ourselves!?
Click to expand...
I would really appreciate it if you could.
 
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