Hi everyone. I just wanted to say a quick hello. It's not looking good, is it? But early days, I guess. As for Rowe, I'm not surprised. He's a selfish footballer on the pitch, so it's not a shock if he's a selfish human being off it. Such a contrast with Sara. If only we could have sold Idah and Rowe and kept Sara. Almost the same amount of money and a very talented footballer who is also a decent person. Anyway, I don't want to say anything too controversial because the main reason I left was that I was getting into pointless arguments. Let's just hope things pick up. I hope you're all well.
Good to see you back Gozo I’m hoping we just need time and for Thorip to work out which players he’s taking along with him
We always lose first game of the season! Let’s not get too down about 1 game. It’s been an incredibly turbulent week with the loss of Sara and last minute dropout of Rose. Doyle has only been in the door a day or so. Fassnacht had next to no preseason. Forson looked bright but also hadn’t played with his new teammates yet
I'm massively disappointed by Rowe. Not a good look for potential buyers as well, if he wants a move, the best way is selling yourself on the pitch, not sulk. Max Aaron was the perfect example of professionalism. As for the game it was bad, after that pre season, not surprising sadly. Feel like we're in a bit of a mess with Idah and Rowe wanting to leave, and maybe Sargent.
Bit of refreshing straight-talking from Jack Stacey -- no excuses, performance could and should have been much better. https://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/24510837.stacey-city-transition-no-excuse-oxford-showing/
But why wasn't it? We're constantly being told that this new style of play is exciting but will take time to implement. By the evidence of the preseason and yesterday it could take a year or more. How many fans will be prepared to wait that long? Yesterday was embarrassing in the extreme and there are far tougher matches to come.
It's too early to write off the season but I haven't seen anything to get excited about . Sara sold , Rowe & Idah acting like spoilt brats demanding to leave . Sargent probably leaving too if someone throws £10 our way . None of the new signings fill me with confidence. Not sure what the American baseball franchise guy has brought to the table but it doesn't look like money . Handley & Duffy look done , clumsy mistake prone liabilities. It was a depressing, boring , zero fight , zero passion performance yesterday against a League 1 outfit that completely dominated us in every department from start to finish.
It is far too early to come to sweeping fears of failure. We had no option but to sell our best player and also have Idah, understandably, wanting to move to Celtic . On top of that we have Rowe acting like a spoilt child and three permanent players we have brought in not yet available to play. The transfer window is still open so lets wait until it closes before we react to the overall squad and let us wait 3 months before coming to conclusions on the quality of performances. Neither Saunders, Bond Or Farke turned it round in one year - Lambert did but look at the starting point - and as long as there are signs of improvement in performances the fans will be patient. I cannot imagine that too many fans yearned for more of the tripe served up by Smith and Wagner.
It took Farke's team until the sixth game of his second season before we saw Farkeball as intended. There was a lot of grumbling in his first season, but those in charge held their nerve. I would expect the same this time round. In point of fact, we have already seen glimpses of the intended style of play in pre-season, and it is what Knapper and Thorup have promised. True, we have seen it only in glimpses, but given all the factors disrupting pre-season, several of which are still operative, it is hardly a surprise. It seems that not many of us had watched Sam Seaman's Tactics Board on the Pink'Un YouTube channel, which he put out on Friday. As he pointed out, the basis of Oxford's success last season was exactly the energetic high pressing that our largely Wagnerian back line have struggled to cope with all pre-season (and which undid us against, for example, St Pauli). That problem has been glaringly obvious from the start, but until we have all our new signings available and better integrated, it's going to persist.
If we can get £7m from Celtic for a player who is not a regular starter or first choice in a Championship side then surely a full international who has been successful in the Championship is worth 3 times that which probably means that only a Premiership Club could afford him. I cannot see many EPL Clubs being interested. I have said time and time again that American owners look upon sport as a business and will not throw pots of money into transfer pots. If you want to see how they operate then you only have to look 40 miles down the road where the owner has improved the infrastructure and profitable use of the facilities and has put professional people in all aspects of the Club including the academy. They have not spent fortunes in the transfer market. Yesterdays performance was abysmal but it far too early to make an overall assessment as many things will change in the next month. I doubt, for example whether Duffy and Hanley will appear again as the CB pairing.
We've now played 7 games under Thorup and I can't see any signs of improvement; if anything, things have got worse. Whatever the Pinkun and MFW journos say, fans respond to results rather than promises. Until we start winning games, or at least put in competitive performances, Thorup will be sinking deeper and deeper into trouble.
Half of preseason he didn’t have the full roster of the first team squad, since then new players have come in and key players have left or dropped themselves out of the squad. Changing the entire footballing philosophy of a team takes times and personnel changes, we won’t be the finished article immediately.
It's not all doom and gloom. We have moved up one place in the table today after Sheffield Wednesday beat Plymouth 4-0!! Got to take any positives we can get!! Being an eternal optimist, I'm sure it will come good - I just don't know when. One thing I do know though is that I'll support the team through the ups and downs and through thick and thin. OTBC
