IL

[Paul Cooper]

Does anybody else feel pretty confident in the club's future with Il at the helm?

I was just reading the news today and the news of the youth team. Josh Ashby on a 3 year contract having shone against Swansea and Cardiff (and how well did the youth team do against those 2 clubs who presumably spent significant more on the youth than oufc). Ruffels, Beavons and COD starting to get a piece of the first team action (Ruffels has already started 10 games this season).

Then there is the woman's team and Les Taylor managing them in the WSL.

Finally there is the measured and sensible way that he is going about appointing CW's successor. Sure he has to get that appointment and the timing correct (we don't want to blow a decent chance of promotion).

The financial position is still a big concern together with the ground. But the reinstatement of the youth team after Kassam almost brought it to it's knees) shows a real intent for the future.

[Out of the gloom]

Reassuring to have a Chairman with a plan that is neither about personal profit (Ka$$am) or personal ego (Maxwell).

Notable news about Les Taylor to manage the WSL team. Could see a Sporting/Director/of Football (whatever the title) also absorbing some of his youth responsibilities?

Interesting times.

[Myles Francis]

Yep, I feel confident that the Lenegan's are going about things the right way.

Today's Mail piece discussing the position of Director of Football is very interesting indeed. IL does have a football adviser who is almost a de facto DoF and I wonder if this article is laying the ground for an announcement along these lines?

[Snake]

5,000 home regulars, 1,000 hardcore away supporters, a hundred or so off-the field activists, and 30,000+ casuals sit on the Jury so come May they will more than likely come to a split decision on whether WPL have taken the club forward if promotion is not achieved. The way things stand playing in League I next season could depend on the width of a post or a dodgy lino decision - but that’s football and the pressures of running and financing any club at any level must be all consuming so I wish Ian good luck.

[slappy]

Disappointed with a pressured tv deal in Super League. Not surprised, that's only around £2M per team per year.
BBC story

and dying to see a game of rugby Guardian story. Nice kit sponsors there! Interesting to see the succesful youth development at Wigan, obviously wants to replicate it here.

[ty cobb]

Interesting times indeed and it's impressive how a manager feels that a team cast adrift at the bottom of the league is a better bet than OUFC is turning into a good news story for IL. I like the emphasis on youth and the fact he seems to be thinking about the next appoitment but the fact is millions of pounds in debt and don't own the stadium so it's quite hard to feel too positive about the future of OUFC.

And whenever I think that IL knows what he's doing I remember that he was taken in by Nick Merry.

Still it's good he's taken more of an interest of late, all this non-football person stuff is rather annoying, not many chairman are football people but at least with IL he has experiance of running a pretty useful sports team.

[Kernow Yellow]

Pretty much agree with Ty here. People say that the PR side of the club is poor, but actually I think IL is very good at choosing when to say things, and being very careful to sound reassuring and in control.

But the facts remain that we are still millions of pounds in debt and losing substantial sums of money every year; we are no nearer to owning our ground, and therefore unable to do much about making it a place where people want to come and watch football; and just when it looked like our manager was capable of delivering the (belated) first step of the five-year plan to make it to the Championship, IL falls out with him and he leaves!

When it comes to his ownership of OUFC, IL was taken in by Nick Merry and has been completely hamstrung by Firoz Kassam.

Of course I welcome the investment in youth development, and I'm pleased to hear that we are again going to conduct a thorough and professional recruitment process for our new manager/coach/DoF/whatever - IL's single biggest achievement to date was employing Chris Wilder and laying the foundations for our promotion from the Conference. Let's hope he can repeat the trick this time round. After all, most people judge a football club by what they achieve on the pitch, and I'll be happy to do the same.

COYY

[SmileyMan]

To be fair to IL, I think it's pretty clear that in the beginning he was very much a silent partner, and the fortunes of the club have improved vastly since his more active involvement.

Owning the ground is the key to it all though. After all the investment so far, it woul dbe weird to walk away from the club now, and so following that logic, and the fact that Ka$$am holds all the cards, would suggest buying sooner rather than later - the more money the club earns (and revenue the ground brings) from competing in higher leagues, the higher the price he'll put on the place. A leveraged buy now, with a strategic focus on developing young players and becoming a selling feeder club, would be a great way forward.

[GodalmingYellow]

Does anybody else feel pretty confident in the club's future with Il at the helm?

I was just reading the news today and the news of the youth team. Josh Ashby on a 3 year contract having shone against Swansea and Cardiff (and how well did the youth team do against those 2 clubs who presumably spent significant more on the youth than oufc). Ruffels, Beavons and COD starting to get a piece of the first team action (Ruffels has already started 10 games this season).

Then there is the woman's team and Les Taylor managing them in the WSL.

Finally there is the measured and sensible way that he is going about appointing CW's successor. Sure he has to get that appointment and the timing correct (we don't want to blow a decent chance of promotion).

The financial position is still a big concern together with the ground. But the reinstatement of the youth team after Kassam almost brought it to it's knees) shows a real intent for the future.

Yep. He's doing a very good job.

Funnily enough, I think Kassam tried to do a good job, at least before the yobs invaded, but in the end he went the wrong way in trying to make the club profitable by cutting everything, rather than trying to make the club profitable by making it attractive to punters. My biggest disappointment about Kassam was that in my view he did not stick to his promises, of using the money gained from The Manor to enable the club to own a new modern purpose built stadium. He made enough from the sale of The Manor to make a decent wedge of profit and ensure the club had a good stadium of its own, but he greedily chose to take both by splitting the stadium and club ownership.

A lot of people were taken in by Merry. It is the one blot on the IL copybook.

IL largely sticks to his promises, at least in so far as it is within his control to do so. His promises are fair and realistic and honest and I like those qualities in people, and on the whole he makes good decisions that are in the interests of the club.

[Eric Pollard]

Thanks. I love you all too.

'Oop the Warriors'!

[Snake]

Thanks. I love you all too.

You ought to change your acting role from Emmerdale to Minchery Farm. Like I said – the jury is out.