Training Ground tour

Anything yellow and blue
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OtmoorYellow
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Training Ground tour

Post by OtmoorYellow »

I was lucky enough to be one of the batch of OxVox members to visit and get a tour of the training ground today.

Wow! I was so impressed. The amount of money that Tiger has invested there is astonishing, and in preparing the team, the club leave literally no stone unturned.

This is superb for the long term viability and progression of the club, as it gives the club the best opportunity to make the most of players at all ages.

The pitches are like billiard tables. The technology for analysis of our performances and those of oppositions is first class, and the way the club analyses and distributes this information is very impressive. And much of it is done right through from the first team down through the age brackets to the academy.

Everywhere is decorated in yellow and blue, with plenty of inspirational quotes and photographs highlighting success. Even the goals have yellow and blue netting.

We had Tiger and Robbo and several players come and chat to the group and answering questions. It was all very open and inclusive.

For an OUFC fan, it was really enjoyable to find out more about what happens behind the scenes and during the week, and much of this stuff is just not publicised by the club, and if it were, I have no doubt that fans would be much more impressed with the money being spent on the club.

Thanks to OxVox for organising this event, and to the club, Tiger, KR and players and Chris Williams for making it a special visit.
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: Training Ground tour

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

Interesting reading, OY, and lots of encouraging stuff there.

I think it’s been obvious to most fans who’ve been paying attention that this has been a steady direction of travel over the past 10+ years since Ian Lenaghan first started investing in sports science at the club. What we have now is clearly the culmination of that - decent training facilities, a properly-funded youth setup and an array of technical experts who can improve our home-grown talent. That’s why I’m so relaxed when we don’t immediately invest every penny from player sales - it’s clear that the money is going into the behind-the-scenes stuff that makes us more sustainable. And the really good news is that the benefits of a pipeline of young players are now starting to show (Lopes, Spasov, Jones, Baptiste etc).

Playing devil’s advocate, the corollary is that this setup can only make us truly sustainable when the ground issue gets resolved, as that’s the other area where investment will put us on a firmer long-term footing. To that end, it was a tad frustrating to hear Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth last night on RadOx giving more platitudes (lots of work ongoing, we’ll get an announcement when it makes commercial sense to do so etc). I’d like RadOx or the OxMail to really push him - no-one’s asking for commercially-sensitive information, but what’s the date by which supporters should be worried if no tangible progress has been made?
recordmeister
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Re: Training Ground tour

Post by recordmeister »

“The pitches are like billiard tables”

I’m hoping they’ve installed one which they’ve ploughed to shit to prepare the players for those lovely L1 games in the north in Feb.

Now that would indeed be ‘leaving no stone unturned’...
OUFC4eva
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Re: Training Ground tour

Post by OUFC4eva »

OtmoorYellow wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 2:21 pm I was lucky enough to be one of the batch of OxVox members to visit and get a tour of the training ground today.

Wow! I was so impressed. The amount of money that Tiger has invested there is astonishing, and in preparing the team, the club leave literally no stone unturned.

This is superb for the long term viability and progression of the club, as it gives the club the best opportunity to make the most of players at all ages.

The pitches are like billiard tables. The technology for analysis of our performances and those of oppositions is first class, and the way the club analyses and distributes this information is very impressive. And much of it is done right through from the first team down through the age brackets to the academy.

Everywhere is decorated in yellow and blue, with plenty of inspirational quotes and photographs highlighting success. Even the goals have yellow and blue netting.

We had Tiger and Robbo and several players come and chat to the group and answering questions. It was all very open and inclusive.

For an OUFC fan, it was really enjoyable to find out more about what happens behind the scenes and during the week, and much of this stuff is just not publicised by the club, and if it were, I have no doubt that fans would be much more impressed with the money being spent on the club.

Thanks to OxVox for organising this event, and to the club, Tiger, KR and players and Chris Williams for making it a special visit.
Nice report.

Is it actually fully completed now?

Why can’t we have yellow and blue nets at Grenoble Road?
OtmoorYellow
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Re: Training Ground tour

Post by OtmoorYellow »

OUFC4eva wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 8:01 am
OtmoorYellow wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2019 2:21 pm I was lucky enough to be one of the batch of OxVox members to visit and get a tour of the training ground today.

Wow! I was so impressed. The amount of money that Tiger has invested there is astonishing, and in preparing the team, the club leave literally no stone unturned.

This is superb for the long term viability and progression of the club, as it gives the club the best opportunity to make the most of players at all ages.

The pitches are like billiard tables. The technology for analysis of our performances and those of oppositions is first class, and the way the club analyses and distributes this information is very impressive. And much of it is done right through from the first team down through the age brackets to the academy.

Everywhere is decorated in yellow and blue, with plenty of inspirational quotes and photographs highlighting success. Even the goals have yellow and blue netting.

We had Tiger and Robbo and several players come and chat to the group and answering questions. It was all very open and inclusive.

For an OUFC fan, it was really enjoyable to find out more about what happens behind the scenes and during the week, and much of this stuff is just not publicised by the club, and if it were, I have no doubt that fans would be much more impressed with the money being spent on the club.

Thanks to OxVox for organising this event, and to the club, Tiger, KR and players and Chris Williams for making it a special visit.
Nice report.

Is it actually fully completed now?

Why can’t we have yellow and blue nets at Grenoble Road?
They are developing it further. More pitches to come, better irrigation of half the site that wasn't upgraded last time, installation of permanent power supplies rather than relying on huge generators, ideas for building a small stand so that U23 matches can be spectated (if that is even a word!). All sorts.

It is a big site, so inevitably any development is expensive, hence the investment so far has been so high.

It really is difficult to fault Tiger on this. It is, and will continue to be, a fantastic facility for the infrastructure and sustainability of the club for decades to come, and I doubt any OUFC team, even when in the top flight, has ever had these sort of facilities to train with.

Ask Mr K about yellow and blue nets I suspect!
OUFC4eva
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Re: Training Ground tour

Post by OUFC4eva »

You’re not suggesting that despite paying the best part of £700-800k a year in rent and service charges the club
is forbidden from having goal nets in its traditional colours :shock: ?

That seems crazy - what are we dealing with here.
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: Training Ground tour

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

OtmoorYellow wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:56 am ...ideas for building a small stand so that U23 matches can be spectated (if that is even a word!)
Great idea. Presumably the women's team could then play there too, thus saving us having to pay (presumably) for them to play games at Court Place Farm. They could even structure fixtures so that people could pay a fiver to watch the women, then the U23s then the U18s back-to-back if they so wished!

OUFC4ever - of all the (many) things about which to be anxious / angry with the club and the stadium owner, the colour of the nets is surely one of the most frivolous!
slappy
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Re: Training Ground tour

Post by slappy »

Thank you for the update.
So what's the deal with the training ground?
I think that BMW did some sort of land swap to extend the plant on old sports pitches and then the council contracted out the new facilities ?
Also wasn't there some sort of fuss under Eales that the club weren't allowed to bid as they didn't have a history of providing sports facilities?

So now are we tenants, but are being allowed to put up some of our own infrastructure?

I am feeling a bit more confident as we have finished the Summer with some good signings, got two good results against teams expected to be at the top of the table come the end of the season. There are still the questions of "what are Tiger and co in it for", and "where's the money coming from?".
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