Administration tomorrow apparently

[A-Ro]

See Here

[Mally]

What a load of rubbish. The poster obviously doesn't understand the first thing about who owns the football club and the implications of administration. The fact that the rent is now increasingly being blamed for the financial situation is ridiculous and in a big part due to John Murray's inaccurate reporting last week. The rent represents something between 10 and 15% of the club's expenses. It's an issue but it isn't THE issue.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

I think you might want to get off your high horse on this. Jon Murray isn't the issue either.

(The rent situation, it seems to me, is a very big issue indeed. That doesn't mean I consider Lenagan and the pig's head any less culpable for getting themselves into the situation - and not getting out of it - but it really matters.

[Mally]

OK whether it was Murray or Merry that introduced Kassam and the rent being &quotconsiderably&quot increased doesn't really matter. The fact is that it was done and it has deflected a lot of attention from Merry and transferred it to Kassam.

Why else would the first two chants on Saturday be:

Merry Merry give us a wave, and

If you all hate Kassam clap your hands.
Later apparently there was also a chant of :

If you hate the Asian bastard clap your hands although I didn't hear that one myself.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

OK whether it was Murray or Merry that introduced Kassam and the rent being &quotconsiderably&quot increased doesn't really matter. The fact is that it was done and it has deflected a lot of attention from Merry and transferred it to Kassam.

Well, it is not unusual for the current ownership of the club to blame other parties for problems of which they themselves are major authors: I've seen it happen a few times before. Very often a large proportion of fans will believe them, for a while. I've seen that happen before, too.

Perhaps the way to address it is to try and make it clear that it is not a question of choosing between the two, and that to find the pig's head culpable - and his absentee boss - it's not necessary to deny that Kassam's cumulative impact on the club has been disastrous and his continued hold a desperate problem.

And if a proportion of fans behaves stupidly, then there's not much that can be done except to keep on speaking the truth and wait for them to listen.

[recordmeister]

A lot of people seem to forget that it was NM and IL who agreed to the price of both the stadium and the rent (including the rental increase) when they bought the club.

The white horses that NM and IL rode into town on now seem, on closer inspection, to be mearly dobbin the donkey and Eeyore from Winnie the Phoo...

I really can't understand the chants about Kassam (other than not forgetting the awful time we had under him), in relation to our current situation.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

I really can't understand the chants about Kassam (other than not forgetting the awful time we had under him), in relation to our current situation.

Well, I can, because he's squeezed the club for everything he can and continues to do so. He may take the view that he's got every right to do so, but other people may take another view. I would hope that the malign greed of Firoz Kassam doesn't deflect attention from the vacuous posing of the pig's head or the scandalous neglect of the pig's head's boss: similarly I would hope that the scandalous neglect of the pig's head's boss and the vacuous posing of the pig's head doesn't entirely cause us to overlook the malign greed of Firoz Kassam. But of course it doesn't always work like that.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

Eeyore, by the way, has always been something of a role model for me. Indeed when I left Oxford and therefore quit my job there, I received an Eeyore as a leaving present. I have him still.

[SmileyMan]

Playing Devil's advocate, but why exactly shouldn't Kassam squeeze the club as hard as he can? It's not like the club and fans treated him very well at the end, is it?

If a bunch of people invaded your company meetings, and harassed you and your family so that you were forced to give up your job, and then turned round and asked you to rent them your old office, what would you charge?

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

If a bunch of people invaded your company meetings, and harassed you and your family

1. No they didn't.

2. The event which you inaccurately describe didn't exactly happen without any background, did it?

I get tired of hearing this bullshit, you know, even from the advocatus diaboli. Kassam has always played as hard as he can and in no interest other than his own.

[DLT]

I really can't understand the chants about Kassam (other than not forgetting the awful time we had under him), in relation to our current situation.

Well, I can, because he's squeezed the club for everything he can and continues to do so. He may take the view that he's got every right to do so, but other people may take another view. I would hope that the malign greed of Firoz Kassam doesn't deflect attention from the vacuous posing of the pig's head or the scandalous neglect of the pig's head's boss: similarly I would hope that the scandalous neglect of the pig's head's boss and the vacuous posing of the pig's head doesn't entirely cause us to overlook the malign greed of Firoz Kassam. But of course it doesn't always work like that.

From my understanding, although someone may tell me I am wrong, the club still have exactly the same arrangement/lease/licence with the stadium company as it had when Kassam owned both.

He didn't to my knowledge hike the rent being paid by the club before handing it over to the Clown!

The club have persistently been late with the rent and Kassam could easily terminate the lease any time he wanted too.

Interesting article in Independent at weekend about the challenges facing Premiership Rugby and how Wasps and Sarries are being held back by their current grounds.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

The club have persistently been late with the rent and Kassam could easily terminate the lease any time he wanted to.

Not &quoteasily&quot, no.

[SmileyMan]

Sorry, I didn't realise that 6000 people being encouraged to shout &quotStand up if you hate the Asian bastards&quot was a spontaneous outpouring of love.

For my money, Kassam was a bit tight-fisted, didn't concentrate enough on the club (or employ a proper chief exec to do it for him) and had a run of ad luck/judgement when it came to picking managers.

Obviously, it was worse than this at the end, but given the way he was treated by the &quotfans&quot, I don't really blame him in the least.

I just find it hard to see any reason why I should prefer WPL to Kassam? They've behaved ineptly at best, and like charlatans at worst, from the very start. And given the previous bunch, it's arguable that Kassam has actually been our best chairman since before Captain Bob.

In reality, he just made the common mistake of trying to run a football club with a bit of financial prudence, rather than the money-wasting hobby that it really is.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

Sorry, I didn't realise that 6000 people being encouraged to shout &quotStand up if you hate the Asian bastards&quot was a spontaneous outpouring of love.

Not for the first time today I find myself writing: &quotdon't be silly&quot. Specifcally, make some effort to get events in the right sequence and describe them accurately. And consistently.

For my money, Kassam was a bit tight-fisted, didn't concentrate enough on the club (or employ a proper chief exec to do it for him) and had a run of ad luck/judgement when it came to picking managers.

Obviously, it was worse than this at the end

No, it worse than this full stop. the club plummeted down the divisions - which remarkable enough, provoked supporter discontent - while he applied himself to completing the proeprty deals that would benefit him the most. When he had completed this, he offloaded the club on the terms that were most beneficial to hi mand least beneficial to the club.

I don't really blame him in the least.

Then more fool you, but other people may choose to be less abject and more idnependent-minded (hard though that isn't).

it's arguable that Kassam has actually been our best chairman since before Captain Bob.

In the sense that anything is arguable, yes, but in no other.

he just made the common mistake of trying to run a football club with a bit of financial prudence

Well, and systematically alienating everybody who worked for him, and a multitude of other sins.


In truth Firoz Kassam has been a disaster for Oxford United. Tying the future of the club to the future of such a ruthless and unpleasant individual was a hugely unwise thing to do and the consequences may well involve the end of the football club. There is quite a lot of effort made to obscure this, by people who do not want to face up to it, and there are a number of alibis that are put forward in that cause, of which the boardroom incident is one and the ineptitude of the present administration another. But I look at the league table when he started to be involved, I look at the appallign bind in which he deliberately left the club - and I am tired of these alibis and of the people who make them. These alibis were made for his predecessors as well - all of them. They were just as abject then.

[recordmeister]

I do think it is easy to hate Kassam more than WPL.

Kassam was an asset stripper who came in and did a fantastic job of what he does: seeing an opportunity and making a LOT of money out of it.

WPL are just a bunch of inept Walter Mitty characters who do have a passion for the sport (IL aside) but have fooled us all into thinking they have the wealth, power and influence to turn this club around.

I'm not sure which is worse but i think, if this was a marriage I'd rather be married to the penniless buffon than the wife beater in the mansion...