Is the club ...

[neilw]

... overly focussed on the medium to longer term, whilst ignoring the immediate priorities? Most of what we hear, including today’s announcement regarding scouting, is all very positive. I don’t disagree with much of what we hear. The vision appears right and upbeat. However, if our inability to win games isn’t addressed over the next few weeks, there is a real possibility of relegation and the end of our club. There appears to be a dangerous complacency and feel good factor, which ignores the reality of where we’re currently at. Busy planning the next voyage, whilst the ship is sinking. Quite honestly, right now, I can’t think beyond getting a few wins in Sept.

[Kernow Yellow]

A similar view to yours here

And I agree to a certain extent. That's not to say that the club shouldn't be doing all this planning - far from it. I'm very encouraged by the professionalism and ambition that the new owners are showing. But off-pitch investment will count for nothing if we don't start climbing the league table quickly. Crowds will dwindle further, debts will mount up, fans will get restless. It could all get very messy.

Our next two fixtures provide an ideal potential springboard for our season - and also a potential nightmare scenario if we slip up. These games really are that big. Let's hope we're as focussed on winning them as we are on building for a nice rosy future in the Championship.

COYY

[Myles Francis]

I'm in full agreement with this. I have no doubt that having a good scouting network is one of the key elements to making the club sustainable going forward, particularly whilst we have so few other revenue generating options.

However, I don't think now is the right time to be bringing it in. At this moment in time, every penny available should be invested into the playing budget and to get success on the pitch. That's the only way we are going to get punters back through the turnstiles and generate income. Instead we are simply introducing further costs into the club which is failing at its core business - winning football games.

[tomoufc]

For me the stadium should be priority. I'd take a couple of average seasons (not relegation seasons, mind you) if we could re-unite the club and physical infrastructure. So, it's not a case of long v short term, for me, but having the right kind of long term goal. Can the owners really afford all these people from the former England set-up and buy the stadium and keep us in the football league for the time being? If so, fair enough, but that sounds far far too good to be true.

BTW when's this fan's forum? Wasn't it supposed to be in September sometime?

[OUFC4eva]

I'm in full agreement with this. I have no doubt that having a good scouting network is one of the key elements to making the club sustainable going forward, particularly whilst we have so few other revenue generating options.

However, I don't think now is the right time to be bringing it in. At this moment in time, every penny available should be invested into the playing budget and to get success on the pitch. That's the only way we are going to get punters back through the turnstiles and generate income. Instead we are simply introducing further costs into the club which is failing at its core business - winning football games.

Myles can you please tell us when you were last CEO of
a professional football club or indeed involved in a football
management position at senior level.

When will this unrelenting introspection cease?

[Kairdiff Exile]

Tom raises an interesting point about priorities. For me, much as I would want to see a better ground than what we have now, that's not the priority; promotion is, and I think getting promoted into Division 3 / League 1 / Whatever-The-Bloody-Hell-It's-Called-This-Week has been the #1 priority of everyone involved in the club since we went down from there under David Kemp. The reason is obvious - it becomes much easier to position us as a potentially successful club (to potential players, to potential fans, to potential investors) at that level where there are bigger gates, a smattering of decent-sized clubs and only one good season away from the much-more-lucrative Division 2 / Championship / Whatever-The-Bloody-Hell-It's-Called-This-Week. It's certainly easier than being in Division 4 (some titles don't change) where we are only half a bad season away from relegation into the abyss - as we know from 2005/6.

So, if promotion is the priority, then where does that leave the scouting setup question? To me, it's part of the solution rather than a potential drain on resources. We've spunked big wages on big name players occasionally in the past (Duberry, Kitson, Mooney) and it hasn't paid off - yet in contrast, when we won promotion from the CONference, it was with a squad of decent professionals whose career trajectories were on the way up and who worked well as a team. Investing in scouting to do the same in Division 4 makes sense as a strategy - even if it does take a few seasons to pay off.

In the meantime, things are of course hairy - but there's a lot of football still to play, and there are enough positive signs to make me reasonably confident that we'll be safe this season (even if it may not be a comfortable ride).

So, to my eyes, the investment in the scouting setup is a positive - probably moreso than any immediate major investment in developing stadium ideas, and certainly moreso than spending over the odds on has-beens and big names from higher divisions who arguably aren't the answer to our problems. Get the playing mentality right, then get the recruitment strategy right, then get promotion and THEN start looking at stadium infrastructure et al.

Notwithstanding that, I'd still love to know who will pay in the long-term for all this investment in things like scouting setups and technical directors. I'd be 99.99999% sure that the answer is us poor bloody punters paying our money at the turnstiles* and that Eales and his mob aren't really going to take any risks with their own cash.

* - hyperbole. We still have to queue twice to get into the ground (once for tickets, once for turnstiles) every other Saturday, despite playing in a quarter-full stadium. How about sorting that little pointless exercise out, someone?

[Kairdiff Exile]

I'm in full agreement with this. I have no doubt that having a good scouting network is one of the key elements to making the club sustainable going forward, particularly whilst we have so few other revenue generating options.

Myles can you please tell us when you were last CEO of a professional football club or indeed involved in a football management position at senior level.

You are Robbie Savage and I claim my £5.

[Myles Francis]

Myles can you please tell us when you were last CEO of
a professional football club or indeed involved in a football
management position at senior level.

When will this unrelenting introspection cease?

So, there were four people here expressing broadly similar views, yet you want to single me out. I'm flattered.

I take it you haven't held those positions either? So, we won't be seeing any comments from you about the running of the club then?

And I guess you haven't been a professional footballer or football manager? So, we won't be seeing any comments about on field performances...

And if you've never been a catering professional, there'll be no commentary on the food and drink available at the stadium.....

Never been a traffic warden? No complaints about how long it takes to get out of the car park from you then!

Now, if you want to debate the issues, I'm more than happy to do so. Having a range of different opinions is what gives a forum life. But when you try and shut down one side of the argument in such a crass fashion you will get the response you deserve.

[tomoufc]

Myles can you please tell us when you were last CEO of
a professional football club or indeed involved in a football
management position at senior level.

When will this unrelenting introspection cease?

So, there were four people here expressing broadly similar views, yet you want to single me out. I'm flattered.

I take it you haven't held those positions either? So, we won't be seeing any comments from you about the running of the club then?

And I guess you haven't been a professional footballer or football manager? So, we won't be seeing any comments about on field performances...

And if you've never been a catering professional, there'll be no commentary on the food and drink available at the stadium.....

Never been a traffic warden? No complaints about how long it takes to get out of the car park from you then!

Now, if you want to debate the issues, I'm more than happy to do so. Having a range of different opinions is what gives a forum life. But when you try and shut down one side of the argument in such a crass fashion you will get the response you deserve.

Let me ask you something: have you been a professional politician or worked in the media? If not how can you possibly know how to frame a debate?

[Kernow Yellow]

For me the stadium should be priority. I'd take a couple of average seasons (not relegation seasons, mind you) if we could re-unite the club and physical infrastructure.

Firstly - that's all very well, but sadly it won't be you who controls whether the 'average' seasons that you'd be happy to accept turn into relegation seasons or not - it involves us winning football matches sooner rather than later. No offence intended here at all - let's just not be complacent that this poor start won't turn into a disastrous season. I think the away crowd tomorrow will give us an idea of how complacent the Oxford football public are in regard to our current situation.

And secondly, while I completely agree that the (or a) stadium should be a priority (and IL basically implied that it underscored the whole raison d'etre of the takeover), it is noticeable that *absolutely nothing* has been said by the new owners to lead us to believe that any progress is being made on that front.

[tomoufc]

For me the stadium should be priority. I'd take a couple of average seasons (not relegation seasons, mind you) if we could re-unite the club and physical infrastructure.

Firstly - that's all very well, but sadly it won't be you who controls whether the 'average' seasons that you'd be happy to accept turn into relegation seasons or not - it involves us winning football matches sooner rather than later. No offence intended here at all - let's just not be complacent that this poor start won't turn into a disastrous season. I think the away crowd tomorrow will give us an idea of how complacent the Oxford football public are in regard to our current situation.

And secondly, while I completely agree that the (or a) stadium should be a priority (and IL basically implied that it underscored the whole raison d'etre of the takeover), it is noticeable that *absolutely nothing* has been said by the new owners to lead us to believe that any progress is being made on that front.

Agree with that, especially after today's result.