If it does all end....

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

Do note the following isn't intended to be fatalistic, or to make any assumptions, or do anything much except ask questions people are bound to be asking yourselves.

But seeing as those questions exist, I ask, out of curiosity....if the club were to close:

(a) do you think you are ever likely to attach yourself to another club to the same extent you're attached to OUFC, or to any extent at all?

(b) do you think it would affect the way you view football in general - would it increase or decrease your interest in it?

(c) would you, to any extent, view the time you've spent following OUFC as wasted time?

I have my own answers to these questions, but I'm interested in yours....

[Steppers]

I would expect my Golf game to improve. (it cannot get worse!!)

I have lost interest in the premership and you could not support a local team so I think I would be less interested.

I have to also say that I am not sure how I would feel about AFC Oxford, as it would not be my team in my mind just like MK Dons is not Wimbledon. It would be a new Oxford team playing in the same kit as the team I supported all my life.

I might get into it eventually but It would feel like cheating on OUFC at the start.

[boris]

Well, seeing as you asked...

a) No. Unless there is a new club arising from the ashes of the old (AFC Oxford, or whatever) in which case I can see myself getting involved with that to some extent (although not in a Kris Stewart way, but certainly tapping into his experience). I can see a phoenix club lasting a couple of seasons before merging with Oxford City, but if that could still be considered as some sort of continuity then that's who I'd support.

b) If the AFC option fails to materialise, then I very much doubt I'd be as interested in football as I am now. I'd still watch it on the box, and would probably take in occasional live games (almost certainly at Court Place Farm), but my main attention would probably be devoted to Jason's under-11 side.

c) Nope.

[Dr Bob]

My interest in football centres around my interest in United. Take that away and my interest in football generally will unquestionably go down. I was born and bred in Cumnor and the longer I have lived away from there, the more my bond to that place and that part of me has come through my support of United. Risking a bit of melodrama, take the club away and a very important bit of me, a bond to where I come from, goes.

Living away also makes picking up any team, let alone a local (to Oxford) non-league team very difficult, practically and emotionally. I think the MK Dons example earlier is wrong - the appropriate parallel would be AFC Wimbledon. I would certainly support an 'AFC Oxford' type of phoenix, but I suspect I would always feel differently about any team other than United in its current and continuous form. Still, AFC Wimbledon, Aldershot, and many others have maintained support and built on their lowest points. Maybe that is where I will get my motivation from.

[SteMerritt]

A) I would probably go and watch Rotherham with my mate who is a big fan. When they follow us into oblivion, I don't know what we will do - probably just go and watch random matches. I could never 'attach' myself to another club though.

B) My interest in football generally outside OUFC is pretty low anyway. I don't care about all the rubbish that surrounds the Premiership. More interested in Oxford City.

C) Not wasted time at all. Too many good memories from The Manor. Good times with good friends.

[Isaac]

I've been giving this some thought recently, for the same reasons as others but also my job has taken me even further away from Oxford so I've not seen a game live this season and I'm not likely to for a while yet.

a) I always end up going to watch a nearby local side anyway and you do get attached somewhat but I can't imagine getting attached to the same extent. You never can tell though. I'm not sure how I'd feel about a phoenix club.

b) I'm gradually less interested in football in general as time passes, I don't much like England and only have a very limited interest in the premier/champions league arms race and that's pretty much all you get if you don't watch a local side.

c) No, definitely not - if it was I'd have given up at that point. Wasted money maybe. Apart from anything else I've learnt about councils, property rules, economics, greedy/inept businessman and probably numerous other things that I'd never learnt about otherwise.

[Roo]

Do note the following isn't intended to be fatalistic, or to make any assumptions, or do anything much except ask questions people are bound to be asking yourselves.

But seeing as those questions exist, I ask, out of curiosity....if the club were to close:

(a) do you think you are ever likely to attach yourself to another club to the same extent you're attached to OUFC, or to any extent at all?

ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER.........UNLESS IT WAS SOME SORT OF PHEONIX FROM THE ASHES TYPE OUFC.



(b) do you think it would affect the way you view football in general - would it increase or decrease your interest in it?



I WOULD CONSIDER IT TO BE AN EVEN MORE CORPULENT CORRUPT COLLECTION OF C*NTS THAN I DO NOW..........DECREASE




(c) would you, to any extent, view the time you've spent following OUFC as wasted time?



NO WAY, NOT EVER.....NO!



I have my own answers to these questions, but I'm interested in yours....

Good questions by the way.....ones I am glad I asked myself!

10/10 top of the class!

[Foghorn]

Interesting questions, Peña.

(a) No. Following OUFC was a rite of passage from my late teens (when I moved to Oxford) onwards, and I identify it with many significant times (and people) in my life. I couldn't imagine being able to replicate those 20|| years following someone else.

(b) I think it would decrease it. I've become so disillusioned with the 'beautiful game' that nearly all my interest in professional football now revolves around OUFC. If there wasn't an OUFC, I couldn't imagine getting excited about the game any more, though I might possibly take more of an interest in football at 'grass roots' level.

(c) No. I'd probably just wish I'd 'wasted' more of it that way!

[YF Dan]

I would support AFC Oxford in the same way that I do OUFC, as for me it would just be the latest chapter in our club's extraordinary life. (Although Aldershot, FCUM, and AFCW have all rocketed through their leagues, why do I think we'd make a mess of it?)

My second team is Hull, but as they've got better and better I've taken less and less interest. They're playing at Arsenal, 3 mins from where I live on Saturday, and I'm not considering going.

My other half works for Leyton Orient, 20 mins from here, and gets free season tickets, but I've only been to see them once in 6 years, and that was because Oxford's match was called off. And that was before THAT game.

So, honestly, it's Oxford or no football for me.

As an aside, if Oxford United did die, would a new club be able to start called &quotOxford United&quot, or legally does it have to be something else?

iii) how can any moment spent watching Beauchamp jink, Moody blast, Aldridge poach, Byrne flick, Foyle lay-off, Simpson mesmerise, Windass chest, Langan cross, Magilton nod, Ford caress, Powell shoulder drop possibly have been wasted time?

[John Byrne's Underpants]

Like others have already mentioned, I too have been giving this a lot of thought lately.

No I would not attach myself to another club in such a way as I've been attached to OUFC. My family tradition is to support Spurs so I'd probably keep a watch on their results (as I do now) but I would never actually be a 'supporter' I don't think.

I'm no longer interested in big money football to be honest. It's getting beyond a joke now with the gap between the haves and the have nots. l'll watch on TV maybe but that's about it.

No my time watching OUFC has not been a waste of time. Plenty of great memories. Particularly during my time in the Osler Road stand (smiles wistfully...

[SmileyMan]

a) As an exile, I think it would be difficult to go beyond &quotmild interest&quot in an AFC Oxford - I'd probably look for the results in the paper. I might start taking the kids to watch the local team (Folkestone Invicta, btw) because, rather paradoxically, the probably demise of OUFC has made me realise just how much going to the Manor as a kid is part of my makeup. I don't think I'd ever be a fan of Invicta, but I'd like to give the kids the opportunity to be, because there's something really important about roots.

b) Other than Oxford, I'm only really interested in the internationals and the odd high-end Champions League fixture, so I guess I'd feel the same as I do now. The game of football would still have its charms, but the way that it's administered is just laughable at the moment.

c) See (a) above - not in the slightest. Oxford 'Til I Die

Good questions.

[Shoobedoo]

Yes these are questions that have been running through my mind recently too.

a) No. I have so much emotional baggage connected with this club right from the point at which my dad (Gawd bless 'im) started bringing me. He's no longer around, but (sorry for the sentimentality) I kinda feel closer to him when I'm watching Oxford. That won't be there at any other club. I've been to a few other grounds in recent years, I seem to end up at the Ricoh Arena at least once a season, and while both the football and the surroundings are light-years ahead of what we have in Oxford, it's still not the same.

b) Football is a joke nowadays, the plaything of the rich. I'll watch it on Santana but that's about it.

c) Oxford United have given me some of the greatest moments of my life - particularly in the years when I was growing up (if I ever did) and I forged many of my closest friendships on the Osler Road terrace. No it wasn't wasted time at all.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

My answers to my own questions:

(a) I do follow a number of other clubs (or at least their fortunes) but none of them to remotely the same degree as I've followed OUFC in the past, and therefore I've never found myself attached to them to the same extent.

I can't see this happening again, though you never know: I suppose it's possible that in the future, if I found myself living somewhere with a football club that particularly attracted me, I could find myself getting excited about them too. It won't be SD Huesca though.

(b) I think football with my club written out of it wouldn't be the same: it'd be permanently soured, even if only a little. I watch Spanish football, without having a team in it, but I don't take so much interest in it precisely because of that. It'd be hard to explain why supporting a club in the Conference makes a different to one's enjoyment of a higher-division match, but it does.

Besides, having no club is better than having had a club and had it closed down. The first of these is a state of indifference: the second, if not actually &quotscrew this&quot, is a bit closer to that.

(c) I have sometimes wondered what I would have done if I hadn't got so interested in football when I did. I might have developed my interest in cinema, for instance, or for that matter I might have read all the books I never had time to read because I was following the football. For that matter, I didn't really play any chess between the ages of 18 and 26, and had I done so I'd likely be a rather stronger player than I am.

But &quotwasted&quot? No, I don't think so. It's very human, football, and I think by and large it's been good for me.

[SmileyMan]

As an aisde, if Oxford United did die, would a new club be able to start called &quotOxford United&quot, or legally does it have to be something else?

I'm sure someone better qualified can tell you, but I expect that &quotOxford United&quot would be a trademark, which is a saleable asset, so you'd at least have to wait until after administration was completely wound up. Even then, it's possible that some speculator might buy the rights to the name in the fire sale, and if they took steps to protect the mark (selling Oxford United branded stuff etc) then you still wouldn't be able to use it.

From a marketing point of view, it might be more sensible to promote a seperate brand anyway - AFC Oxford gets an uplift from the notional link to AFC Wimbledon - people understand immediately what the concept and ethos is. Play in yellow and blue, and have a stylistically different Ox as the logo

[boris]

(c) I have sometimes wondered what I would have done if I hadn't got so interested in football when I did. I might have developed my interest in cinema, for instance, or for that matter I might have read all the books I never had time to read because I was following the football. For that matter, I didn't really play any chess between the ages of 18 and 26, and had I done so I'd likely be a rather stronger player than I am.

But &quotwasted&quot? No, I don't think so. It's very human, football, and I think by and large it's been good for me.

Plus, you'd never have written your books or all the various articles. You'd never have edited the fanzine. You'd not have met large numbers of your friends, past and present (although I guess you'd have a different set of friends, but still). And maybe if you hadn't followed Oxford United, you might not have been so completely disenchanted. I know I owe my own cynical outlook in large part to the suffering I've endured on the terraces over the years.