IL on the Non-League Show

[Snake]

Did anyone else get even more worried by that interview?

C’mon, someone pick out some bits to cheer Us all up..

[Ancient Colin]

Would you like to enlighten those of us wot didn't see it?

[MightyOxford1982]

Anyone Out there with a knowledge of what he said as im intrested to know aswell.

Always good to hear what the Boss has to say!!!

[GodalmingYellow]

http&#58//www&#46bbc&#46co&#46uk/london ... e&#46shtml

Just click the listen again option.

The Lenagan bit starts just over 30 minutes into the show, so you might want to fast forward it.

[Mooro]

Thanks for the link GY.

A few summary points:
- Team - believes DP/ML are right people to build the right team, but that this will take time and is a gradual process, but that they are already starting with the commitment to youth.
- IL future - standard reluctantance to commit to being around long-term (&quotyou can never say never nowadays&quot), but has &quotalready shown his commitment and is heavily involved in taking the club forwards&quot and &quothopes to be around for many years to come&quot.
- squad/this season - constrained by salary cap, not willingness on their part to spend money. Have apparently agreed to offer transfer fees in this window for the right players.
- support - can understand why people do not want to watch, but at the same time asked whether now is the time to withdraw your support, when the team need it most.
- stadium - was a 3 year plan to find the right partner to get the stadium and Conf Centre &quotback into the ownership of the club&quot. They were apparently close to a deal 3 months ago and there is another deal under discussion at the moment. If they have the stadium and are back in the league within those 3 years then he feels they will have delivered.
- communication - already committed to a third fans forum during rest of season. Held meeting last week between Lenahan/Brown/Williams about best method of communication with fans. Felt some fans want to talk when nothing has happened, his view is that they will tell the fans when something changes.


Am I more worried? - no, I dont think so, but equally not massively enthused either. The plan seems to be a gradual one (on and off field) which would suggest no immediate withdrawal or crisis (for at least 3yrs), but does mean yet more patience required, which I suspect is a commodity in increasingly small supply nowadays.

[GodalmingYellow]

Thanks for the link GY.

A few summary points:
- Team - believes DP/ML are right people to build the right team, but that this will take time and is a gradual process, but that they are already starting with the commitment to youth.
- IL future - standard reluctantance to commit to being around long-term (&quotyou can never say never nowadays&quot), but has &quotalready shown his commitment and is heavily involved in taking the club forwards&quot and &quothopes to be around for many years to come&quot.
- squad/this season - constrained by salary cap, not willingness on their part to spend money. Have apparently agreed to offer transfer fees in this window for the right players.
- support - can understand why people do not want to watch, but at the same time asked whether now is the time to withdraw your support, when the team need it most.
- stadium - was a 3 year plan to find the right partner to get the stadium and Conf Centre &quotback into the ownership of the club&quot. They were apparently close to a deal 3 months ago and there is another deal under discussion at the moment. If they have the stadium and are back in the league within those 3 years then he feels they will have delivered.
- communication - already committed to a third fans forum during rest of season. Held meeting last week between Lenahan/Brown/Williams about best method of communication with fans. Felt some fans want to talk when nothing has happened, his view is that they will tell the fans when something changes.


Am I more worried? - no, I dont think so, but equally not massively enthused either. The plan seems to be a gradual one (on and off field) which would suggest no immediate withdrawal or crisis (for at least 3yrs), but does mean yet more patience required, which I suspect is a commodity in increasingly small supply nowadays.

Hmm, As I recall, the 3 year plan started when they took over, it didn't start yesterday. That implies, especially when taken in conjunction with refusal to commit lomg term, that the 3 years is up at end of next season. The question then raised is will he up sticks at that point claiming to have already committed enough money to the project.

Its easy to say money spent to date is an expression of committment. The flip side argument is that they when all guns blazing and failed and now he has overspent badly and can't recover the money, so he has nothing to lose by making that claim. The question raised here is why did they overspend so badly, and why didn't they budget properly and stick to it. the answer almost certainly lies in Jim Smith getting way too much of a free reign in signing players and determining contract values and so we have had underperforming overpaid players who were not right for the Conference.

The questioning of diminishing support makes no recognition of the non-existant marketing and commercial side to the club, or the over-pricing of the product, or lack of incentive schemes and communication with the fans.

He can't on the one hand change manager, have a stadium deal fall through, start up another stadium deal, badly overspend the budget, incur losses of £800k||, see support falling dramatically and the team plummet down the table, and then claim that there has been nothing to communicate. Its been a disastrous season and communication has been non-existent in the last 3 months.

Similarly, Merry can't claim to have refused communication because of some dodgy emails he has supposedly received, and then claim it has been down to nothing to communicate.

Its been a shambles and Merry and Smith have a lot to answer for. If it wasn't for Lenagan, this club would no longer exist. Time for the whole outlook and approach to be changed.

[boris]

In the interview he claimed that the three-year plan started six months ago, so it must have been a different three-year plan to the one that started when they took over. I expect a new three-year plan to be unveiled in about 18 months.

[GodalmingYellow]

In the interview he claimed that the three-year plan started six months ago, so it must have been a different three-year plan to the one that started when they took over. I expect a new three-year plan to be unveiled in about 18 months.

Fairy snuff, I must have missed that quote.

I got interupted when typing th elast post and meant to put a marker down for the positives as well, such as recognition of the need to build a squad rather than buy a squad, the need for stability, the need for youth to be involved, these are all vital to the club, and I would like to see the re-instatement of a regular reserves side, played at an appropriate level.

[MightyOxford1982]

i think its the most important thing we need is a good standerd of Reserve Football now u may think im a idiot but maybe we should let our reserves play in the Hellenic League (if they allow this to happen they did a few years ago im sure) as u just cant get the same feeling out of a reserve league as u do in a normal league.

Plus it will give the Res a chance to play teams that play up when they play them.

A Idea anyway!!!

[Mooro]

GY - I'm really not convinced that re-instating the reserves into a strict league format is a priority at the moment.

I was when I originally heard that it was being dropped, but after talking to Les, Patto and (the illusive) Simon L, I am now of the opinion that our squad is not big enough to make it a worthwhile exercise. We do not have enough senior pros to allow half a dozen to play in a midweek game when our first team is playing midweek as well (which happens a lot at certain points in the season). The alternative is to only have 1 or 2 and throw in the youth team, who are often out of their depth against stronger opposition. When the mix is 50/50 then the kids can learn from the seniors they are playing alongside, but when they are just thrown in on their own, they do not learn. Last season Andy Gunn was trying to shepherd a back four of 16 years olds against Championship reserve players, whereas he ought to have been partnering a senior centre-half who would be passing on his experience. As a result, none of the kids were able to really improve from the process.
The plan this year was to either learn more from training with the seniors midweek rather than playing, then playing reserve fixtures with a decent spread of senior players when the fixture list allowed.
As it is, the likes of Fisher, Benjamin etc are probably gaining more from brief runouts in the first team against Conference opposition &amp with senior players alongside them, than they would be as one of 10 U18 players against Ipswich/Norwich/Southend reserves as it was last season

It is worth noting that only a few conference sides have reserve teams in the Pontins league (where we were) and that there is no organised reserve league below that for clubs of our level. Our choices would be a london based league against clubs many levels below us, or a Midland based league of mainly step 2 sides, but which are in effect their youth teams (who are not in a youth league of their own). Entering a side in the lower levels of the pyramid is a)frowned upon in many circles and ii) would effectively mean withdrawing the youth team from the youth alliance in which they are competing well against league sides.

A very long reply to a single line, but I think that it is worth explaining the thinking behind the move and that to me (as someone who loved watching the reserves last season and was originally quite annoyed by the decision itself) it has been a sensible move.

[GodalmingYellow]

I think the important issue here is getting the reserve side playing at the right level.

In my view, the 1st XI must always be priority, and at the moment, players returning from fitness are having to play unfit, a la Anaclet and Rose on Sunday, which is not good for their fitness or for the team.

Any players who have not played a full game on the previous Saturday, or who may not play a full game on the following Saturday must be available for midweek reserve games and that would only improve their match fitness, not destroy it. Don't forget, only a maximum of 11 out of the 16 players in the 1st XI squad can play the full game each week, and we have 22 players or so regularly on our books. So even allowing for injuries, there will always be 5 or 6 first XI players available who are playing less than a full 90 minutes each week.

That then gives the more advanced youth team players the opportunity to play with more experienced players in reserve games.

Fair enough very early in the season there are more weeks with 2 games in, but reserves seasons tend to start later anyway to cope with that.

The only question then remains as to the level to play at. A team made up of a mixture of youth and reserves is what used to be called the &quotA&quot team, and it has never been frowned upon for such teams to enter further down the pyramid that I'm aware of, in fact it used to be very common in the days when youth set ups were much bigger than they are now.

Even if such a League programme could not be entered, I would think many Conference sides would be up for regular friendlies at that level, or even playing 1st XI of local sides on a regular friendly basis could be possible.

I think money has a lot more to do with it in all honesty, not that Lenagan will allow that to be admitted.

[MightyOxford1982]

I agree with you Mr. Mooro when it comes to our Kids but to the players like Danny Rose who are coming back from injury or players on the fringe of the 1st team I belive they need regular games to keep them match fit/sharp.

Without a reserve team u could if most players are fit not play a game of football competively for 2/3 months and thats not good for any players at any level.

Im sorry in my view occasional friendlies vs North Leigh or Abingdon Utd are not really whats required to get ur players match fit/sharp.

[Hog]

Am I the only one to be baffled by the fact he chooses to pour his heart out to a London radio station where few Oxford supporters will hear it, rather than on Radio Oxford? And then for the official club site to let a major interview go un-reported? I have only just got in and don't live locally so apologies if RadOx have been playing a recording of it, but for the official site not to communicate what was said is, at best 'disappointing'.

[Paul Cooper]

Am I the only one to be baffled by the fact he chooses to pour his heart out to a London radio station where few Oxford supporters will hear it, rather than on Radio Oxford? And then for the official club site to let a major interview go un-reported? I have only just got in and don't live locally so apologies if RadOx have been playing a recording of it, but for the official site not to communicate what was said is, at best 'disappointing'.

RO did play parts of the interview this morning. I agree though and thought at the time that it was a little odd.

[Myles Francis]

Am I the only one to be baffled by the fact he chooses to pour his heart out to a London radio station where few Oxford supporters will hear it, rather than on Radio Oxford? And then for the official club site to let a major interview go un-reported? I have only just got in and don't live locally so apologies if RadOx have been playing a recording of it, but for the official site not to communicate what was said is, at best 'disappointing'.

To be fair, although the Non-League Show is produced by BBC London, it is aimed at a national audience and is available on DAB and online.

They were also very supportive of the Ultimate Yellows stuff, interviewing some muppet about that when it was launched.