Rage Online

I recall Henman, when he was at the height of his tennis career, being one of a few sports 'stars' asked by a New Year's Day edition of a national newspaper to make sporting predictions for the year ahead. He predicted OUFC to win the FA Cup, which was pretty optimistic given we would have been in Div 3 or 4 at the time. I've certainly never heard him claim to support any other team than Us.

Personally I think it's nice if he's mentioning us on national radio, even if he's a bit sketchy about our history. After all, it only takes a brief perusal of Yellows Forum to see plenty of self-proclaimed die-hard fans having similarly poor memories of games and seasons past.

JoeyBeauchamp wrote:On BBC Radio Five Live's risible '6-love-6' programme last night, Tim Henman was asked if he supported a football team and said he was an OUFC fan. However, he disastrously ruined this by saying that we won the Milk Cup (kudos for getting the name right) in 1983, and saying the team included Dean Saunders. We don't get many plastic fans, but now I know how Villa fans feel when Prince William and David Cameron claim to support them.

Don't forget Tom Hanks is a Villa fan too - of the three I would suggest our future king knows the most about the club.

I'm sure this has been covered before, but apart from messrs Mallett and Rosenthal (and it seems Henman, perhaps) who else can we count among our celeb supporters?

I've got a feeling that Henman claimed to support Arsenal, when Fulham were looking like relegation material a few years ago.

Fair do's if he has genuinely decided to start supporting the Us

Dominic Diamond don't forget!

Let's be frank, Tim Henman is no more an OUFC 'fan' than my best man Roger B who is chairman of STFC supporters club (and I don't mean Shrewsbury or Slough!)

Hog wrote:Let's be frank, Tim Henman is no more an OUFC 'fan' than my best man Roger B who is chairman of STFC supporters club (and I don't mean Shrewsbury or Slough!)

What a ridiculous thing to say (and I don't just mean that your best man is a STFC fan). Henman isn't saying he spent his formative years on the London Road. But if, having grown up in Oxford and more recently moved back nearby, he wants to claim allegiance to the Mighty Yellows, what's the problem with that? He's hardly trying to use us to gain kudos - he obviously just has a soft spot for the club. Some people need to chill out.

Kernow Yellow wrote:

Hog wrote:Let's be frank, Tim Henman is no more an OUFC 'fan' than my best man Roger B who is chairman of STFC supporters club (and I don't mean Shrewsbury or Slough!)

What a ridiculous thing to say (and I don't just mean that your best man is a STFC fan). Henman isn't saying he spent his formative years on the London Road. But if, having grown up in Oxford and more recently moved back nearby, he wants to claim allegiance to the Mighty Yellows, what's the problem with that? He's hardly trying to use us to gain kudos - he obviously just has a soft spot for the club. Some people need to chill out.

Indeed they do KY! ;-

Do you think he has a soft spot for the club or, possibly, no interest in football at all and says the first thing that comes to mind? It will be interesting to see how many games he is sighted at, being a local with time on his hands like!

Hog wrote:

Kernow Yellow wrote:

Hog wrote:Let's be frank, Tim Henman is no more an OUFC 'fan' than my best man Roger B who is chairman of STFC supporters club (and I don't mean Shrewsbury or Slough!)

What a ridiculous thing to say (and I don't just mean that your best man is a STFC fan). Henman isn't saying he spent his formative years on the London Road. But if, having grown up in Oxford and more recently moved back nearby, he wants to claim allegiance to the Mighty Yellows, what's the problem with that? He's hardly trying to use us to gain kudos - he obviously just has a soft spot for the club. Some people need to chill out.

Indeed they do KY! ;-

Do you think he has a soft spot for the club or, possibly, no interest in football at all and says the first thing that comes to mind? It will be interesting to see how many games he is sighted at, being a local with time on his hands like!

Sorry Jon, I'm with Hog on this one - if Henman had even been to a game in the past 20 years, we'd have known about it and he clearly hasn't. If he had quoted 1986 and mentioned any of the 11 who played that day I'd be reasonably impressed, but he basically got the year wrong and cited a player who wasn't at the club until many years later.

I'll happily give him a lift to Portsmouth though if he's looking for one? Come on Tim prove me wrong and drop me a PM.

Sounds like we are back to debating the definition of 'true fan', I'm a bigger fan than you, etc, etc, etc. Maybe, because I have not seen Somerset play for several years, I should stop claiming to be a supporter? After all, I cannot claim to know the names, histories etc of the current squad, let alone those from 27 years ago. Frankly, any mention by anybody well-known associating themselves with OUFC is fine by me. Whether they choose to come to games or not is up to them.

Hog wrote:Do you think he has a soft spot for the club or, possibly, no interest in football at all and says the first thing that comes to mind?

If he had no interest in football at all, why would he keep mentioning OUFC? I don't even particularly care if he's claimed to support other teams before (although I've seen no evidence of it). He's a local lad who's moved back home after a successful and very public career travelling the world for years, and he wants to show some support for his local team. So what if he doesn't know every aspect of our history? There's no need to call him a chinless c**t, or, worse, liken him to a Sw*nd*n fan! I'm genuinely surprised at the amount of sniping and even vitriol being aimed at one of the best sportspeople to come out of Oxford in recent years.

Hang on KY, I wouldn't dream of calling him any of the names you have used but I now appear guilty by association because you've listed them below a quote of mine. Perhaps I'm too sensitive?

I'd be more than happy for Henman to be a regular attender at games or call himself an Oxford fan if he has a genuine interest but I suspect the fact is he's not bothered about (any) football and only mentions a team to humour reporters who seem to think everyone is obsessed with football and must have a favourite club. And let's face it, a lot of people think they 'support' a team because they buy a replica shirt and watch them on TV.

Hog wrote:Hang on KY, I wouldn't dream of calling him any of the names you have used but I now appear guilty by association because you've listed them below a quote of mine. Perhaps I'm too sensitive?

Well, it was you who likened his support for OUFC to that of a Sw*ndon fan, to be fair. It's true that the stream of potty-mouthed invective aimed at him was from someone else entirely - an enigmatic one-post wonder.

As to the rest of your post, let's just agree to disagree. Since we obviously do! And this issue is frankly unworthy of the many words spent on it thus far. Roll on the new season and we can resume slagging off football players rather than a tennis player...

Kernow Yellow wrote:

Hog wrote:Hang on KY, I wouldn't dream of calling him any of the names you have used but I now appear guilty by association because you've listed them below a quote of mine. Perhaps I'm too sensitive?

Well, it was you who likened his support for OUFC to that of a Sw*ndon fan, to be fair. It's true that the stream of potty-mouthed invective aimed at him was from someone else entirely - an enigmatic one-post wonder.

As to the rest of your post, let's just agree to disagree. Since we obviously do! And this issue is frankly unworthy of the many words spent on it thus far. Roll on the new season and we can resume slagging off football players rather than a tennis player...

Although I like the idea of being an "enigmatic one-post wonder", I can in fact reveal my true identity to the world... I was formerly Joey's Toe, but had to change username during the recent change of board (apparently the apostrophe was beyond the comprehension of the new server - my grammar/punctuation pedantry coming back to haunt me, I suppose).

Back to the topic, I stand by my stream of potty-mouthed invective re: Henman. The man's an arse, he previously slagged off our club and is now trying to suggest he has an affinity to us. I agree with Hog - Henman almost certainly cares as much for football as I do for tennis (ie, not at all). That's fine, but don't pretend to have an allegience to a team if you clearly don't by any reasonable standards. The only thing worse than a turncoat is a turncoat who's also a faker.

Fulham seem to think that Bobby Moore was an Oxford United manager. http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2013/july/ ... t-made-ffc

Steve Tully leaves Exeter City for Salisbury. Tully scored the winning penalty in the BSP play-off semi-final shoot-out win over Oxford United in 2006/07. Exeter eventually lost to Morecambe, but were promoted in 2007/08 by beating Cambridge United in the final, before going onto win promotion from L2 in 2008/09.