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Post by myles on May 19, 2017 9:34:18 GMT
The talk about the Academy Manager position on the Sartori thread got me thinking about the various key off-field positions at the club, and where we currently are with those.
For me, the four key positions at any serious football club are First Team Manager, Academy Manager, Head of Commercial/Commercial Director, and Managing Director/Head of Operations. It's fairly obvious where we stand with the First Team Manager, but where are we with the other three?
Academy Manager - Back in November, Les Taylor stood down from managing the Women's team to focus on his role as Boys Academy Manager, a position which reported into Richard Blackmore, the Academy General Manager. Richard Blackmore stood down, somewhat unexpectedly, in February around the time that the first rumours regarding cuts to the Academy's funding started to surface. I can't recall if it was explicitly stated, but the clear assumption would be that there should be a full recruitment process to fill such a key position. With no other news emerging, and certainly no formal announcement, it's interesting to see that Les Taylor is now listed on the various club websites as the Academy Manager. So, the question here is whether this is a permanent position, or a holding role pending the appointment of a new permanent Academy Manager? If it is a permanent appointment, why no formal announcement? Also, what sort of recruitment process has gone on here? I know that Les oversaw the youth system when it was a bare-bones operation under Kassam, but when the Academy proper was restarted under the Lenagans, the Academy Manager role was taken by Richard Blackmore, as it was felt that he had the better skill set for the more complex and varied job role, i.e. it was somewhat more than just Head Youth Coach plus a bit. That's not meant as any sort of criticism of Les by the way, it's just reflecting the reality of the situation.
Head of Commercial - Joanna Emmerson joined the club in August last year and, by all accounts, appears to have left sometime before Christmas. No formal announcement appears to have been made. Since then, there was a couple of lines in Darryl's programmes notes for the Bolton game in March saying that Peter Lee was now the "de facto" Head of Retail and Commercial. So, not a proper appointment then, and something he'd be doing in line with running his own business. For such a critical role, I find this surprising. This time of year is when the commercial team needs to be pounding the streets, making the calls etc etc to drum up sponsorship, sell executive boxes and so on for next season. Every club needs to make this area work and work hard as this is what ensures that there is still income rolling in even if events on the field turn out to be less good than hoped for. Before Darryl came in, the club had a very good commercial operation which had built up some strong relationships with the wider Oxfordshire business community. Schemes like United In Business were in a position to deliver fairly significant additional revenues for minimal outlay, but that has simply been allowed to wither and die. Having a part-time Head of Commercial hardly seems the way to make this area grow again. And, once more, this is no criticism of Rosie and the team who have performed really well considering the constraints they are operating under. But this is an absolutely vital area for the club to maximise and grow.
Managing Director - Obviously, it was announced that Greig was leaving at the end of the season and he has now left the building. At the time of that announcement it was also said that there would be a proper recruitment process to find a replacement. What HASN'T been announced is that the role appears to have been filled with the promotion of Benn Brown from Financial Controller to "Director of Finance and Operations" (Managing Director in other words!). But, as I understand it, this is a part-time role with Benn spending three days a week at the club and he commutes from Stoke. At the same time he remains Financial Director at Global Timber Products in Burton upon Trent.
Overall, this paints a pretty sorry picture of where the club is currently at off the field. And these are areas which are absolutely vital to get right to ensure that progress on the field can be maintained. Hopefully, we shall see some strengthening and growth in the very near future.
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Post by socrates on May 20, 2017 22:44:34 GMT
Food for thought indeed
Makes me wonder exactly what the Oxford Mail and Radio Oxford journos are doing with their time
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Post by oxfordmitch on May 21, 2017 8:43:59 GMT
Does Peter Lee not own some part of the club?
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Post by oufcyellows on May 21, 2017 8:47:57 GMT
5% I think
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Post by manorlounger on May 21, 2017 9:01:21 GMT
The infrastructure of the club appears to have engaged quite a few of us over the past few months and equally puzzled many. The revolving door has seen far too many exits and far too few entries.
Hopefully these departures and the wider implications will prompt questions, and answers, at the AGM, although I have my doubts.
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Post by foweyox on May 21, 2017 10:32:01 GMT
Wow. Great post. Makes no sense that we arent full every week. Agree fully re needing to be slick in all areas if we are going to be progressive. Ollie The Ox could surely sell several hundred tickets per week just walking up and down Cornmarket to the music of "Sweet Caroline", especially if wearing a T-Shirt saying "we are going to keep playing this until we are sold out!".
However, whilst direct marketing /street selling may have an impact, you are then often relying on people making an impulse decision to buy into something they maybe have never experienced and only might enjoy. Many first timers still think "hooligans" when the word football is mentioned - they probably liken the experience to a pub full of p*ssed Sunday revellers watching 2 games at once on Sky Sports. There are some stereotypes that need to be broken down and the experience needs to be appealing to a really broad demographic. Its all down to education.
The whole experience needs to be positioned as a fun experience on many levels, and especially somewhere safe and fun that you can afford to take your kids. There needs to be someone at the marketing helm who knows how to re-invent the brand and get the community/family message out there. Media like RadOx/Oxford Mail need to get on board and help get the OUFC story across.
Whilst we are doing our community proud and it is important culturally that we have a football team in Oxford, everyone in Oxfordshire should be aware that in order to protect the club and continue the good work within the community, it needs their support. If every seat was full every week, the club would probably be at break even (?) and so would be a going concern.
Cant go to the game yourself but want to help the club? A crowdfunding initiative could be set up where you can donate and match day tickets are then given to deserving cases in the community. We need to position OUFC as an essential cog in the community, engage people more closely into the legend and turn a matchday experience into a "must have". Saturdays should be when every child wants to go to watch Oxford again rather than to the toy shop. We are surely more attractive to any prospective buyer, who is thinking about Championship/Premiership (where we need to fill larger stadiums) to see we can fill Grenoble. We cant just hope for the best when it comes to the number of walk-ins and higher attendances are key to our commercial viability.
It seems that we may have either under-skilled or part time accountant types in the key roles. They may be very proficient numbers men but typically are not creative marketeers so it needs addressing. In fact these people often put the brakes on new initiatives because their risk tolerance to fund new ideas is too low.
The academy is well respected and talked about but I think we are a victim of our own success. The young players coming through who have been put on professional contracts havent had a peep and have been sent to lesser teams on loan and then released. It should be of come concern that we dont have anyone home-grown who is a regular, when we hold the academy in such high regard. We have let most of those with the most potential leave recently so who is left? Other than Ashby I just cannot see anyone getting close to challenging and so from a commercial perspective is the academy a good idea? We are clearly going to be a club loaning players or taking those on free transfers and developing them - We might find a gem from within the academy, develop and then sell on for a million (again) but what is the cost of developing those that didnt make it? Horrible thought though that smaller clubs abandon the grass roots development but maybe a price for the money needed to progress in football today.
Anyway, whether DE is at the helm or someone else takes over, what goes on off the pitch is critical to the success on it.
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Post by foweyox on May 21, 2017 10:51:29 GMT
Oxford United Donor Card - you can donate a kidney and your body parts when you die, but how about an OUFC donor card - let people donate to the club when their time comes Reward card - Scan when you book and buy 5 tickets and get the 6th free - ideal for people who cant go regularly Crowdfunding idea above - In association with OUFC - concession tickets on seats that would otherwise be empty A social/barbeque at every home match - soft intro for first timers Pre match engagement - a fiver to take a penalty against one of the keepers ? Opportunity to have pictures taken with the players - big money spinner
Theres so much more that can be done, so many ways to raise revenues significantly on match days
IF, just IF, and I think this very likely, ALL games will be available on live streaming from next year, we might see a big drop in attendances. We need to be doing everything possible now to find a contingency for this. Please someone ask at the AGM why we have empty seats and whats being done about it?
Eat my cheese.
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Post by Marked Ox on May 21, 2017 11:02:59 GMT
Wow. Great post. Makes no sense that we arent full every week. Agree fully re needing to be slick in all areas if we are going to be progressive. Ollie The Ox could surely sell several hundred tickets per week just walking up and down Cornmarket to the music of "Sweet Caroline", especially if wearing a T-Shirt saying "we are going to keep playing this until we are sold out!". However, whilst direct marketing /street selling may have an impact, you are then often relying on people making an impulse decision to buy into something they maybe have never experienced and only might enjoy. Many first timers still think "hooligans" when the word football is mentioned - they probably liken the experience to a pub full of p*ssed Sunday revellers watching 2 games at once on Sky Sports. There are some stereotypes that need to be broken down and the experience needs to be appealing to a really broad demographic. Its all down to education. The whole experience needs to be positioned as a fun experience on many levels, and especially somewhere safe and fun that you can afford to take your kids. There needs to be someone at the marketing helm who knows how to re-invent the brand and get the community/family message out there. Media like RadOx/Oxford Mail need to get on board and help get the OUFC story across. Whilst we are doing our community proud and it is important culturally that we have a football team in Oxford, everyone in Oxfordshire should be aware that in order to protect the club and continue the good work within the community, it needs their support. If every seat was full every week, the club would probably be at break even (?) and so would be a going concern. Cant go to the game yourself but want to help the club? A crowdfunding initiative could be set up where you can donate and match day tickets are then given to deserving cases in the community. We need to position OUFC as an essential cog in the community, engage people more closely into the legend and turn a matchday experience into a "must have". Saturdays should be when every child wants to go to watch Oxford again rather than to the toy shop. We are surely more attractive to any prospective buyer, who is thinking about Championship/Premiership (where we need to fill larger stadiums) to see we can fill Grenoble. We cant just hope for the best when it comes to the number of walk-ins and higher attendances are key to our commercial viability. It seems that we may have either under-skilled or part time accountant types in the key roles. They may be very proficient numbers men but typically are not creative marketeers so it needs addressing. In fact these people often put the brakes on new initiatives because their risk tolerance to fund new ideas is too low. The academy is well respected and talked about but I think we are a victim of our own success. The young players coming through who have been put on professional contracts havent had a peep and have been sent to lesser teams on loan and then released. It should be of come concern that we dont have anyone home-grown who is a regular, when we hold the academy in such high regard. We have let most of those with the most potential leave recently so who is left? Other than Ashby I just cannot see anyone getting close to challenging and so from a commercial perspective is the academy a good idea? We are clearly going to be a club loaning players or taking those on free transfers and developing them - We might find a gem from within the academy, develop and then sell on for a million (again) but what is the cost of developing those that didnt make it? Horrible thought though that smaller clubs abandon the grass roots development but maybe a price for the money needed to progress in football today. Anyway, whether DE is at the helm or someone else takes over, what goes on off the pitch is critical to the success on it. With regards to the Academy, last summer we sold Callum O'Dowda for a substantial sum after he played a significant part in our getting promotion. This season, we have seen Canice Carroll start to be used in the 1st team and MApp obviously rates him. I have no doubt if he stays fit Carroll will play a lot more next season. Also, add in Sam Long who would have been involved far more if he hadn't got injured.
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Post by sussox on May 21, 2017 11:52:21 GMT
Wow. Great post. Makes no sense that we arent full every week. Agree fully re needing to be slick in all areas if we are going to be progressive. Ollie The Ox could surely sell several hundred tickets per week just walking up and down Cornmarket to the music of "Sweet Caroline", especially if wearing a T-Shirt saying "we are going to keep playing this until we are sold out!". However, whilst direct marketing /street selling may have an impact, you are then often relying on people making an impulse decision to buy into something they maybe have never experienced and only might enjoy. Many first timers still think "hooligans" when the word football is mentioned - they probably liken the experience to a pub full of p*ssed Sunday revellers watching 2 games at once on Sky Sports. There are some stereotypes that need to be broken down and the experience needs to be appealing to a really broad demographic. Its all down to education. The whole experience needs to be positioned as a fun experience on many levels, and especially somewhere safe and fun that you can afford to take your kids. There needs to be someone at the marketing helm who knows how to re-invent the brand and get the community/family message out there. Media like RadOx/Oxford Mail need to get on board and help get the OUFC story across. Whilst we are doing our community proud and it is important culturally that we have a football team in Oxford, everyone in Oxfordshire should be aware that in order to protect the club and continue the good work within the community, it needs their support. If every seat was full every week, the club would probably be at break even (?) and so would be a going concern. Cant go to the game yourself but want to help the club? A crowdfunding initiative could be set up where you can donate and match day tickets are then given to deserving cases in the community. We need to position OUFC as an essential cog in the community, engage people more closely into the legend and turn a matchday experience into a "must have". Saturdays should be when every child wants to go to watch Oxford again rather than to the toy shop. We are surely more attractive to any prospective buyer, who is thinking about Championship/Premiership (where we need to fill larger stadiums) to see we can fill Grenoble. We cant just hope for the best when it comes to the number of walk-ins and higher attendances are key to our commercial viability. It seems that we may have either under-skilled or part time accountant types in the key roles. They may be very proficient numbers men but typically are not creative marketeers so it needs addressing. In fact these people often put the brakes on new initiatives because their risk tolerance to fund new ideas is too low. The academy is well respected and talked about but I think we are a victim of our own success. The young players coming through who have been put on professional contracts havent had a peep and have been sent to lesser teams on loan and then released. It should be of come concern that we dont have anyone home-grown who is a regular, when we hold the academy in such high regard. We have let most of those with the most potential leave recently so who is left? Other than Ashby I just cannot see anyone getting close to challenging and so from a commercial perspective is the academy a good idea? We are clearly going to be a club loaning players or taking those on free transfers and developing them - We might find a gem from within the academy, develop and then sell on for a million (again) but what is the cost of developing those that didnt make it? Horrible thought though that smaller clubs abandon the grass roots development but maybe a price for the money needed to progress in football today. Anyway, whether DE is at the helm or someone else takes over, what goes on off the pitch is critical to the success on it. Really good point. Ashby has been kept on out of respect of his injury. Sam Long, from what I've seen of him in the reserves/development squad, not going to get in the team if we are serious about promotion next year. Carroll, again possibly a squad player, but not the experience to add to a promotion pushing team.
Some clubs have abandoned the Academy idea and spent the money on experienced, proven players, ready to slot into the first team. It would be interesting to know the cost of developing those that haven't made it over the last 5 years, relating to what we could have used it for, wages or fees.
These clubs have looked at the costs verses the small chance of finding a Callum O'Dowda, have taken the option with less risk, or is that a better use of limited resources.
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Post by foweyox on May 21, 2017 12:02:18 GMT
CoD balanced the books - Lots of potential with the other 3 and of course hope they are good enough rather than be sent off on loan and fade into obscurity. The problem is that the pot of players in football has become global. (Interesting to see how Brexit changes this) There is so much more competition and the standards have gone up. Are our kids technically as good as those abroad of the same age? England performances suggest not. The premiership gets flooded with overseas players, their youth dont get a look in and so get loaned out or sold to clubs in leagues below. The championship teams pass on their fringe players to L1 clubs who then offload to L2. Its quite hard for kids coming through at grass roots level to make the transition to league football because the standard, even though we see the same 4 leagues every year, is getting so much better year on year. They really have to take their chance - much easier for a striker than a defender in good team who doesnt have much to do - no team can afford to give game time to someone to develop them if team selection then costs points. I think our academy is amongst the best, certainly of the small clubs, but maybe if we do get Sartori taking over, we could have some people sent over to Italy to see how a top European side develop their academies. My feeling is that in England we are probably miles away from whats going on abroad and I suspect their young kids are technically at a much higher level than ours. I think the academy could be world class but needs substantial investment from (Sartori) and the success could only be measured after 5 or 6 years. By that time, if hypothetically his plan is to get us to PL by then, the question is whether anyone from the academy will be good enough to compete with the top European/World talent we would need to attract. Fair play to the academy for being much better than many of those in the country, and would be interesting to see a list of any league teams/Championship/Premiership who finished above us and who dont have one.
Academies are key though to the grass roots of English football and I hope that business greed doesnt pull the trigger on that. The PL clubs could collectively monopolise football and secure a group of 30 who could never be displaced. A prelude to a super league set by closing all of their academies. They continue to buy players from abroad or steal players like Lego for £1m and keep the smaller clubs "poor" and in their place. Soon, there are no PL young academy players dripping down. The Championship clubs have to buy from L1 and L1 buy from L2 and the best case scenario would be that you have a team of English players who never were good enough for PL. The standard below the PL would drop to such an extent that it would be apparent that teams coming up went straight down and those relegated came straight up. We arent far from it. At that stage, consolidation into a ESL would help "reinvent football" as an elite group of 30 on a billion dollar stage. The European Super League soon follows and domestic football becomes as pointless and as uninteresting as Sunday football.
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Post by oufcyellows on May 21, 2017 12:07:15 GMT
Wow. Great post. Makes no sense that we arent full every week. Agree fully re needing to be slick in all areas if we are going to be progressive. Ollie The Ox could surely sell several hundred tickets per week just walking up and down Cornmarket to the music of "Sweet Caroline", especially if wearing a T-Shirt saying "we are going to keep playing this until we are sold out!". However, whilst direct marketing /street selling may have an impact, you are then often relying on people making an impulse decision to buy into something they maybe have never experienced and only might enjoy. Many first timers still think "hooligans" when the word football is mentioned - they probably liken the experience to a pub full of p*ssed Sunday revellers watching 2 games at once on Sky Sports. There are some stereotypes that need to be broken down and the experience needs to be appealing to a really broad demographic. Its all down to education. The whole experience needs to be positioned as a fun experience on many levels, and especially somewhere safe and fun that you can afford to take your kids. There needs to be someone at the marketing helm who knows how to re-invent the brand and get the community/family message out there. Media like RadOx/Oxford Mail need to get on board and help get the OUFC story across. Whilst we are doing our community proud and it is important culturally that we have a football team in Oxford, everyone in Oxfordshire should be aware that in order to protect the club and continue the good work within the community, it needs their support. If every seat was full every week, the club would probably be at break even (?) and so would be a going concern. Cant go to the game yourself but want to help the club? A crowdfunding initiative could be set up where you can donate and match day tickets are then given to deserving cases in the community. We need to position OUFC as an essential cog in the community, engage people more closely into the legend and turn a matchday experience into a "must have". Saturdays should be when every child wants to go to watch Oxford again rather than to the toy shop. We are surely more attractive to any prospective buyer, who is thinking about Championship/Premiership (where we need to fill larger stadiums) to see we can fill Grenoble. We cant just hope for the best when it comes to the number of walk-ins and higher attendances are key to our commercial viability. It seems that we may have either under-skilled or part time accountant types in the key roles. They may be very proficient numbers men but typically are not creative marketeers so it needs addressing. In fact these people often put the brakes on new initiatives because their risk tolerance to fund new ideas is too low. The academy is well respected and talked about but I think we are a victim of our own success. The young players coming through who have been put on professional contracts havent had a peep and have been sent to lesser teams on loan and then released. It should be of come concern that we dont have anyone home-grown who is a regular, when we hold the academy in such high regard. We have let most of those with the most potential leave recently so who is left? Other than Ashby I just cannot see anyone getting close to challenging and so from a commercial perspective is the academy a good idea? We are clearly going to be a club loaning players or taking those on free transfers and developing them - We might find a gem from within the academy, develop and then sell on for a million (again) but what is the cost of developing those that didnt make it? Horrible thought though that smaller clubs abandon the grass roots development but maybe a price for the money needed to progress in football today. Anyway, whether DE is at the helm or someone else takes over, what goes on off the pitch is critical to the success on it. Really good point. Ashby has been kept on out of respect of his injury. Sam Long, from what I've seen of him in the reserves/development squad, not going to get in the team if we are serious about promotion next year. Carroll, again possibly a squad player, but not the experience to add to a promotion pushing team.
Some clubs have abandoned the Academy idea and spent the money on experienced, proven players, ready to slot into the first team. It would be interesting to know the cost of developing those that haven't made it over the last 5 years, relating to what we could have used it for, wages or fees.
These clubs have looked at the costs verses the small chance of finding a Callum O'Dowda, have taken the option with less risk, or is that a better use of limited resources.
Is long only a squad player? I like him, I think he's more than capable of having the season that Edwards just did. Until he gets a run of games it's hard to judge him, many were saying the same about ruffles only being good enough to be a l2 squad player, gets he's more than proved that wrong this season
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Off-field
May 21, 2017 13:06:08 GMT
via mobile
Post by bazzer9461 on May 21, 2017 13:06:08 GMT
Wow. Great post. Makes no sense that we arent full every week. Agree fully re needing to be slick in all areas if we are going to be progressive. Ollie The Ox could surely sell several hundred tickets per week just walking up and down Cornmarket to the music of "Sweet Caroline", especially if wearing a T-Shirt saying "we are going to keep playing this until we are sold out!". However, whilst direct marketing /street selling may have an impact, you are then often relying on people making an impulse decision to buy into something they maybe have never experienced and only might enjoy. Many first timers still think "hooligans" when the word football is mentioned - they probably liken the experience to a pub full of p*ssed Sunday revellers watching 2 games at once on Sky Sports. There are some stereotypes that need to be broken down and the experience needs to be appealing to a really broad demographic. Its all down to education. The whole experience needs to be positioned as a fun experience on many levels, and especially somewhere safe and fun that you can afford to take your kids. There needs to be someone at the marketing helm who knows how to re-invent the brand and get the community/family message out there. Media like RadOx/Oxford Mail need to get on board and help get the OUFC story across. Whilst we are doing our community proud and it is important culturally that we have a football team in Oxford, everyone in Oxfordshire should be aware that in order to protect the club and continue the good work within the community, it needs their support. If every seat was full every week, the club would probably be at break even (?) and so would be a going concern. Cant go to the game yourself but want to help the club? A crowdfunding initiative could be set up where you can donate and match day tickets are then given to deserving cases in the community. We need to position OUFC as an essential cog in the community, engage people more closely into the legend and turn a matchday experience into a "must have". Saturdays should be when every child wants to go to watch Oxford again rather than to the toy shop. We are surely more attractive to any prospective buyer, who is thinking about Championship/Premiership (where we need to fill larger stadiums) to see we can fill Grenoble. We cant just hope for the best when it comes to the number of walk-ins and higher attendances are key to our commercial viability. It seems that we may have either under-skilled or part time accountant types in the key roles. They may be very proficient numbers men but typically are not creative marketeers so it needs addressing. In fact these people often put the brakes on new initiatives because their risk tolerance to fund new ideas is too low. The academy is well respected and talked about but I think we are a victim of our own success. The young players coming through who have been put on professional contracts havent had a peep and have been sent to lesser teams on loan and then released. It should be of come concern that we dont have anyone home-grown who is a regular, when we hold the academy in such high regard. We have let most of those with the most potential leave recently so who is left? Other than Ashby I just cannot see anyone getting close to challenging and so from a commercial perspective is the academy a good idea? We are clearly going to be a club loaning players or taking those on free transfers and developing them - We might find a gem from within the academy, develop and then sell on for a million (again) but what is the cost of developing those that didnt make it? Horrible thought though that smaller clubs abandon the grass roots development but maybe a price for the money needed to progress in football today. Anyway, whether DE is at the helm or someone else takes over, what goes on off the pitch is critical to the success on it. Really good point. Ashby has been kept on out of respect of his injury. Sam Long, from what I've seen of him in the reserves/development squad, not going to get in the team if we are serious about promotion next year. Carroll, again possibly a squad player, but not the experience to add to a promotion pushing team.
Some clubs have abandoned the Academy idea and spent the money on experienced, proven players, ready to slot into the first team. It would be interesting to know the cost of developing those that haven't made it over the last 5 years, relating to what we could have used it for, wages or fees.
These clubs have looked at the costs verses the small chance of finding a Callum O'Dowda, have taken the option with less risk, or is that a better use of limited resources.
You obviously haven't seen Carroll ffs
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Post by Marked Ox on May 21, 2017 15:47:04 GMT
CoD balanced the books - Lots of potential with the other 3 and of course hope they are good enough rather than be sent off on loan and fade into obscurity. The problem is that the pot of players in football has become global. (Interesting to see how Brexit changes this) There is so much more competition and the standards have gone up. Are our kids technically as good as those abroad of the same age? England performances suggest not. The premiership gets flooded with overseas players, their youth dont get a look in and so get loaned out or sold to clubs in leagues below. The championship teams pass on their fringe players to L1 clubs who then offload to L2. Its quite hard for kids coming through at grass roots level to make the transition to league football because the standard, even though we see the same 4 leagues every year, is getting so much better year on year. They really have to take their chance - much easier for a striker than a defender in good team who doesnt have much to do - no team can afford to give game time to someone to develop them if team selection then costs points. I think our academy is amongst the best, certainly of the small clubs, but maybe if we do get Sartori taking over, we could have some people sent over to Italy to see how a top European side develop their academies. My feeling is that in England we are probably miles away from whats going on abroad and I suspect their young kids are technically at a much higher level than ours. I think the academy could be world class but needs substantial investment from (Sartori) and the success could only be measured after 5 or 6 years. By that time, if hypothetically his plan is to get us to PL by then, the question is whether anyone from the academy will be good enough to compete with the top European/World talent we would need to attract. Fair play to the academy for being much better than many of those in the country, and would be interesting to see a list of any league teams/Championship/Premiership who finished above us and who dont have one. Academies are key though to the grass roots of English football and I hope that business greed doesnt pull the trigger on that. The PL clubs could collectively monopolise football and secure a group of 30 who could never be displaced. A prelude to a super league set by closing all of their academies. They continue to buy players from abroad or steal players like Lego for £1m and keep the smaller clubs "poor" and in their place. Soon, there are no PL young academy players dripping down. The Championship clubs have to buy from L1 and L1 buy from L2 and the best case scenario would be that you have a team of English players who never were good enough for PL. The standard below the PL would drop to such an extent that it would be apparent that teams coming up went straight down and those relegated came straight up. We arent far from it. At that stage, consolidation into a ESL would help "reinvent football" as an elite group of 30 on a billion dollar stage. The European Super League soon follows and domestic football becomes as pointless and as uninteresting as Sunday football. England U17s (including a keeper who is at Wimbledon) just lost the final of the U17 European Championships to Spain on penalties and qualified for their age group World Cup. England U20s just beat Argentina 3-0 in their 1st group game of the U20 World Cup in South Korea. England have also qualified for the U19 World Cup according to the commentary on the England u20 game. Chelsea's academy also won the UEFA Youth Lg in 2015 & 2016 with a lot of English qualified players in their teams. They didn't compete in it this year as the 1st team didn't get into the Champions Lg. Much vaunted youth systems such as Barcelona, Ajax and Bayern Munich haven't been nearly as successful. Also, rules have changed in the Football League that from 2018-19 at least one player must be 'club developed' in the match day 18. 'Club developed' means they must have been at the club for at least 1 year before their u19 season ends which to me makes it more imperative. That is one hell of a hypothetical. Considering the example being set by his father in law at AS Monaco where youth development is very much important, should the takeover happen I would expect Sartori to follow the same path.
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Post by Marked Ox on May 21, 2017 15:50:00 GMT
Wow. Great post. Makes no sense that we arent full every week. Agree fully re needing to be slick in all areas if we are going to be progressive. Ollie The Ox could surely sell several hundred tickets per week just walking up and down Cornmarket to the music of "Sweet Caroline", especially if wearing a T-Shirt saying "we are going to keep playing this until we are sold out!". However, whilst direct marketing /street selling may have an impact, you are then often relying on people making an impulse decision to buy into something they maybe have never experienced and only might enjoy. Many first timers still think "hooligans" when the word football is mentioned - they probably liken the experience to a pub full of p*ssed Sunday revellers watching 2 games at once on Sky Sports. There are some stereotypes that need to be broken down and the experience needs to be appealing to a really broad demographic. Its all down to education. The whole experience needs to be positioned as a fun experience on many levels, and especially somewhere safe and fun that you can afford to take your kids. There needs to be someone at the marketing helm who knows how to re-invent the brand and get the community/family message out there. Media like RadOx/Oxford Mail need to get on board and help get the OUFC story across. Whilst we are doing our community proud and it is important culturally that we have a football team in Oxford, everyone in Oxfordshire should be aware that in order to protect the club and continue the good work within the community, it needs their support. If every seat was full every week, the club would probably be at break even (?) and so would be a going concern. Cant go to the game yourself but want to help the club? A crowdfunding initiative could be set up where you can donate and match day tickets are then given to deserving cases in the community. We need to position OUFC as an essential cog in the community, engage people more closely into the legend and turn a matchday experience into a "must have". Saturdays should be when every child wants to go to watch Oxford again rather than to the toy shop. We are surely more attractive to any prospective buyer, who is thinking about Championship/Premiership (where we need to fill larger stadiums) to see we can fill Grenoble. We cant just hope for the best when it comes to the number of walk-ins and higher attendances are key to our commercial viability. It seems that we may have either under-skilled or part time accountant types in the key roles. They may be very proficient numbers men but typically are not creative marketeers so it needs addressing. In fact these people often put the brakes on new initiatives because their risk tolerance to fund new ideas is too low. The academy is well respected and talked about but I think we are a victim of our own success. The young players coming through who have been put on professional contracts havent had a peep and have been sent to lesser teams on loan and then released. It should be of come concern that we dont have anyone home-grown who is a regular, when we hold the academy in such high regard. We have let most of those with the most potential leave recently so who is left? Other than Ashby I just cannot see anyone getting close to challenging and so from a commercial perspective is the academy a good idea? We are clearly going to be a club loaning players or taking those on free transfers and developing them - We might find a gem from within the academy, develop and then sell on for a million (again) but what is the cost of developing those that didnt make it? Horrible thought though that smaller clubs abandon the grass roots development but maybe a price for the money needed to progress in football today. Anyway, whether DE is at the helm or someone else takes over, what goes on off the pitch is critical to the success on it. Really good point. Ashby has been kept on out of respect of his injury. Sam Long, from what I've seen of him in the reserves/development squad, not going to get in the team if we are serious about promotion next year. Carroll, again possibly a squad player, but not the experience to add to a promotion pushing team.
Some clubs have abandoned the Academy idea and spent the money on experienced, proven players, ready to slot into the first team. It would be interesting to know the cost of developing those that haven't made it over the last 5 years, relating to what we could have used it for, wages or fees.
These clubs have looked at the costs verses the small chance of finding a Callum O'Dowda, have taken the option with less risk, or is that a better use of limited resources.
I expect you to be surprised how much Carroll will get used next season then if he stays fit.
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Post by sussox on May 21, 2017 15:55:15 GMT
Really good point. Ashby has been kept on out of respect of his injury. Sam Long, from what I've seen of him in the reserves/development squad, not going to get in the team if we are serious about promotion next year. Carroll, again possibly a squad player, but not the experience to add to a promotion pushing team.
Some clubs have abandoned the Academy idea and spent the money on experienced, proven players, ready to slot into the first team. It would be interesting to know the cost of developing those that haven't made it over the last 5 years, relating to what we could have used it for, wages or fees.
These clubs have looked at the costs verses the small chance of finding a Callum O'Dowda, have taken the option with less risk, or is that a better use of limited resources.
Is long only a squad player? I like him, I think he's more than capable of having the season that Edwards just did. Until he gets a run of games it's hard to judge him, many were saying the same about ruffles only being good enough to be a l2 squad player, gets he's more than proved that wrong this season I really thought Ruffles would make it, bided his time and then gave 100% every time. That's one of the things Appleton likes in him I think.
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Post by sussox on May 21, 2017 15:56:24 GMT
Really good point. Ashby has been kept on out of respect of his injury. Sam Long, from what I've seen of him in the reserves/development squad, not going to get in the team if we are serious about promotion next year. Carroll, again possibly a squad player, but not the experience to add to a promotion pushing team.
Some clubs have abandoned the Academy idea and spent the money on experienced, proven players, ready to slot into the first team. It would be interesting to know the cost of developing those that haven't made it over the last 5 years, relating to what we could have used it for, wages or fees.
These clubs have looked at the costs verses the small chance of finding a Callum O'Dowda, have taken the option with less risk, or is that a better use of limited resources.
You obviously haven't seen Carrollffs Who is Carrollffs?
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Post by oufcyellows on May 21, 2017 15:57:10 GMT
Is long only a squad player? I like him, I think he's more than capable of having the season that Edwards just did. Until he gets a run of games it's hard to judge him, many were saying the same about ruffles only being good enough to be a l2 squad player, gets he's more than proved that wrong this season I really thought Ruffles would make it, bided his time and then gave 100% every time. That's one of the things Appleton likes in him I think. I think the same will happen with long, hence the new contract
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Post by Gary Baldi on May 21, 2017 20:24:28 GMT
I stand to be corrected, but didn't DE in his programme notes that this was the best season the club has had for retail and corporate revenues? Or better than the last few years. Worth keeping in mind given the chaos in some departments.
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Post by myles on May 21, 2017 20:51:28 GMT
I stand to be corrected, but didn't DE in his programme notes that this was the best season the club has had for retail and corporate revenues? Or better than the last few years. Worth keeping in mind given the chaos in some departments. Indeed, and that's why I made a particular point of saying it wasn't a dig at Rosie and Co and they have performed well considering the constraints they are under. However, considering this season was coming off the back of a promotion, and to the highest level the club has been for nearly 15 years, you'd have to be going some to NOT be doing some good numbers.
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Post by Gary Baldi on May 21, 2017 20:59:11 GMT
I stand to be corrected, but didn't DE in his programme notes that this was the best season the club has had for retail and corporate revenues? Or better than the last few years. Worth keeping in mind given the chaos in some departments. Indeed, and that's why I made a particular point of saying it wasn't a dig at Rosie and Co and they have performed well considering the constraints they are under. However, considering this season was coming off the back of a promotion, and to the highest level the club has been for nearly 15 years, you'd have to be going some to NOT be doing some good numbers. Oh absolutely. What is unclear is what amount of influence Peter Lee has had in the commercial department - I do wonder if he did that in desperation or seeing where he could add value? It is clear he's had more and more influence in the club in the past 18 months.
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Post by londonroader on May 22, 2017 7:28:02 GMT
Wow. Great post. Makes no sense that we arent full every week. Agree fully re needing to be slick in all areas if we are going to be progressive. Ollie The Ox could surely sell several hundred tickets per week just walking up and down Cornmarket to the music of "Sweet Caroline", especially if wearing a T-Shirt saying "we are going to keep playing this until we are sold out!". However, whilst direct marketing /street selling may have an impact, you are then often relying on people making an impulse decision to buy into something they maybe have never experienced and only might enjoy. Many first timers still think "hooligans" when the word football is mentioned - they probably liken the experience to a pub full of p*ssed Sunday revellers watching 2 games at once on Sky Sports. There are some stereotypes that need to be broken down and the experience needs to be appealing to a really broad demographic. Its all down to education. The whole experience needs to be positioned as a fun experience on many levels, and especially somewhere safe and fun that you can afford to take your kids. There needs to be someone at the marketing helm who knows how to re-invent the brand and get the community/family message out there. Media like RadOx/Oxford Mail need to get on board and help get the OUFC story across. Whilst we are doing our community proud and it is important culturally that we have a football team in Oxford, everyone in Oxfordshire should be aware that in order to protect the club and continue the good work within the community, it needs their support. If every seat was full every week, the club would probably be at break even (?) and so would be a going concern. Cant go to the game yourself but want to help the club? A crowdfunding initiative could be set up where you can donate and match day tickets are then given to deserving cases in the community. We need to position OUFC as an essential cog in the community, engage people more closely into the legend and turn a matchday experience into a "must have". Saturdays should be when every child wants to go to watch Oxford again rather than to the toy shop. We are surely more attractive to any prospective buyer, who is thinking about Championship/Premiership (where we need to fill larger stadiums) to see we can fill Grenoble. We cant just hope for the best when it comes to the number of walk-ins and higher attendances are key to our commercial viability. It seems that we may have either under-skilled or part time accountant types in the key roles. They may be very proficient numbers men but typically are not creative marketeers so it needs addressing. In fact these people often put the brakes on new initiatives because their risk tolerance to fund new ideas is too low. The academy is well respected and talked about but I think we are a victim of our own success. The young players coming through who have been put on professional contracts havent had a peep and have been sent to lesser teams on loan and then released. It should be of come concern that we dont have anyone home-grown who is a regular, when we hold the academy in such high regard. We have let most of those with the most potential leave recently so who is left? Other than Ashby I just cannot see anyone getting close to challenging and so from a commercial perspective is the academy a good idea? We are clearly going to be a club loaning players or taking those on free transfers and developing them - We might find a gem from within the academy, develop and then sell on for a million (again) but what is the cost of developing those that didnt make it? Horrible thought though that smaller clubs abandon the grass roots development but maybe a price for the money needed to progress in football today. Anyway, whether DE is at the helm or someone else takes over, what goes on off the pitch is critical to the success on it. You are probably right about "first timers", why did EPL make millwall the family club of the year, football itself doesn't do it's self any favours.
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Post by myles on Jun 9, 2017 17:10:21 GMT
Well, with this piece of news today: www.oufc.co.uk/news/2017/june/090617-les-taylor/ I think it's worth picking this thread up again. In the article it says that with Les becoming Head of Coaching that "allows the club to bring in a new Head of Academy to oversee things and take a more strategic role. We will be advertising for that very soon." Sorry, but am I missing something here? That "more strategic role" was the one occupied by Richard Blackmore and was vacated months ago. So why has it taken until now and this odd move by Les for the role now to be advertised "very soon"? With the upcoming review of the Academy, which I understand is due this summer, it again raises the question of what the hell is going on.
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Post by Denissmithswig on Jun 9, 2017 17:21:40 GMT
Well, with this piece of news today: www.oufc.co.uk/news/2017/june/090617-les-taylor/ I think it's worth picking this thread up again. In the article it says that with Les becoming Head of Coaching that "allows the club to bring in a new Head of Academy to oversee things and take a more strategic role. We will be advertising for that very soon." Sorry, but am I missing something here? That "more strategic role" was the one occupied by Richard Blackmore and was vacated months ago. So why has it taken until now and this odd move by Les for the role now to be advertised "very soon"? With the upcoming review of the Academy, which I understand is due this summer, it again raises the question of what the hell is going on. From reading that article the review of the academy has happened (hence the role change being announced now).
As a head of academy Les wont of done much, if any coaching. This new role sounds like he will be going around all age groups helping coach the kids along side the other coaches and also coaching the coaches so that Oxford United have the same coaching techniques through all age groups. I don't believe this role was done by Richard Blackmore.
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Post by myles on Jun 9, 2017 17:32:16 GMT
Well, with this piece of news today: www.oufc.co.uk/news/2017/june/090617-les-taylor/ I think it's worth picking this thread up again. In the article it says that with Les becoming Head of Coaching that "allows the club to bring in a new Head of Academy to oversee things and take a more strategic role. We will be advertising for that very soon." Sorry, but am I missing something here? That "more strategic role" was the one occupied by Richard Blackmore and was vacated months ago. So why has it taken until now and this odd move by Les for the role now to be advertised "very soon"? With the upcoming review of the Academy, which I understand is due this summer, it again raises the question of what the hell is going on. From reading that article the review of the academy has happened (hence the role change being announced now).
As a head of academy Les wont of done much, if any coaching. This new role sounds like he will be going around all age groups helping coach the kids along side the other coaches and also coaching the coaches so that Oxford United have the same coaching techniques through all age groups. I don't believe this role was done by Richard Blackmore.
Sorry, but I think you've missed the point here. Richard Blackmore was the Academy Manager responsible for the overall strategic management of the Academy. When he stood down from the ladies team, Les became head of the boy's academy, reporting in to Richard. Les was basically doing the role that you are describing - overseeing the coaching standards and implementation across the boys academy. When Richard stood down, it seems that Les was bumped up to cover Richard's role at some point, despite never being announced by the club (as mentioned in my opening post in this thread). And now we have Les stepping back down to concentrate on his passion, the coaching, and allow the club to recruit the more strategic position - and it's being announced in a way as though Richard Blackmore never existed!
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Post by Denissmithswig on Jun 9, 2017 19:05:42 GMT
From reading that article the review of the academy has happened (hence the role change being announced now).
As a head of academy Les wont of done much, if any coaching. This new role sounds like he will be going around all age groups helping coach the kids along side the other coaches and also coaching the coaches so that Oxford United have the same coaching techniques through all age groups. I don't believe this role was done by Richard Blackmore.
Sorry, but I think you've missed the point here. Richard Blackmore was the Academy Manager responsible for the overall strategic management of the Academy. When he stood down from the ladies team, Les became head of the boy's academy, reporting in to Richard. Les was basically doing the role that you are describing - overseeing the coaching standards and implementation across the boys academy. When Richard stood down, it seems that Les was bumped up to cover Richard's role at some point, despite never being announced by the club (as mentioned in my opening post in this thread). And now we have Les stepping back down to concentrate on his passion, the coaching, and allow the club to recruit the more strategic position - and it's being announced in a way as though Richard Blackmore never existed! Les was Richard's replacement as academy manager, this wouldn't of included so much coach but more the running of the academy such as budgets, paying staff, making sure the games were organised, ensuring there were refs for the home matches, player expenses, ensuring all the boys in digs were being looked after and so on. Les's new role sounds like he is now over seeing the coaching standards of the academy and assisting where needed, a new role to the academy (I thought we were cost cutting? ). This means Les Taylor's role as Academy Manager needs filling. I'm not sure what Richard Blackmore has to do with any of this? He left and Les Taylor replaced him as academy manager and now we need a new person to replace Les Taylor.
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Post by Bue Guado on Jun 13, 2017 10:16:16 GMT
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