I wasn’t there, Jerome.

[GodalmingYellow]

The purpose is to make clear that fans do not recognise that the owners are presently doing what is required to avoid a potential relegation situation and that the fans are dissatisfied with that position and that it needs to change.

So what do you think the owners should do to address that? And why do you think a significant majority of OxVox members would agree with you? And doesn't that anyway contradict your previously stated position that OxVox should not try to interfere with managerial decision-making?

You might find it hard to believe, but Eales not wanting the club to go down is not in itself enough to prevent it from happening.

Of course I don't find it hard to believe - do you think any football club wants to go down? But I also don't think that OxVox making a statement expressing their (our) dissatisfaction with the current league position would make relegation any less likely. It would simply be a statement of the obvious.

What a strange response.

There is no contradiction. The previous remarks you refer to were in connection with interfering with team selection and playing policy.

Whether other Oxvox members agree or disagree is up to them and it is for the committee to determine where the majority view lays. As a founder OxVox member, this is my opinion.

It is up to the owners to decide what should be done to change the present position. They might decide MApp has had enough time. They might decide he needs a bigger playing budget. They might decide that the loan players aren't good enough. They might decide that ticket prices are too high and they would prefer a full ground to spur the team on. They might decide on all manner of options. Only leaving things as they are is an option that they need to be dissuaded on.

An OxVox statement would add to the pressure for the owners to change how the first team are operating.

Defending the indefensible of leaving everything as it is and putting your head in the sand as you appear to want to do is a terrible response.

[ty cobb]

I must say I find this taking the view that the club continue to get millions into debt but the guy doing it says trust me he'll write it off pretty strange. Presuambly the owners of Pompy and Leeds over the years asked their fans to trust them and they were working in the best interests of the club - look where that got them.

If DE really intends to write the debt off why not just gift the money to OUFC instead of leaving it on our balance sheet as a debt? He could still keep track of the money he has stuck in and pay himself a large dividend if things did improve (and I wouldn't begrudge him from doing that) or when coming to sell set the sale price at a level that reflects his investment.

As things stand, he and the previous owner aren't investing their money as such, they are just adding to the debts of the football club. At this rate we will have a debt the size of a new stadium with nothing to show for it.

I would also question whether being so close with the owner is an effective strategy. IL sold the club seemingly out the blue with no discussion with OxVox which would suggest he didn't give a fu*k about what the view of OxVox was for such a key decision so all that hard work building a relationship with him seemed to be for nothing in the end.

[Kernow Yellow]

Defending the indefensible of leaving everything as it is and putting your head in the sand as you appear to want to do is a terrible response.

Yes of course I want everything to stay as it is and us to get relegated. What a laughable (and I suspect willful) misinterpretation of my views expressed on this thread!

Let's just agree to disagree on whether OxVox should attempt to intervene at this point shall we?

[tomoufc]

I must say I find this taking the view that the club continue to get millions into debt but the guy doing it says trust me he'll write it off pretty strange. Presuambly the owners of Pompy and Leeds over the years asked their fans to trust them and they were working in the best interests of the club - look where that got them.

If DE really intends to write the debt off why not just gift the money to OUFC instead of leaving it on our balance sheet as a debt? He could still keep track of the money he has stuck in and pay himself a large dividend if things did improve (and I wouldn't begrudge him from doing that) or when coming to sell set the sale price at a level that reflects his investment.

As things stand, he and the previous owner aren't investing their money as such, they are just adding to the debts of the football club. At this rate we will have a debt the size of a new stadium with nothing to show for it.

I would also question whether being so close with the owner is an effective strategy. IL sold the club seemingly out the blue with no discussion with OxVox which would suggest he didn't give a fu*k about what the view of OxVox was for such a key decision so all that hard work building a relationship with him seemed to be for nothing in the end.

Or if there are some accounting advantages to creating 'soft' debt for the owners, over just investing in the traditional manner, why not put that debt on a special purpose vehicle - Enesco (or whatever it's called) for instance - thereby ring-fencing it from the club?