Jerome Sale column: What do poor results and fan unrest mean for Oxford United?
- Published
Oxford United are struggling in 14th place in League One and have lost their past three games.
If you were at Oxford United's games against Burton or Barnsley this week, you will know that these are not fun times.
Even the CEO on this week's Five Minute Fans Forum on BBC Oxford and BBC Sounds described it as "painful" to watch.
Oxford United is a club that in the last 15 years has not been a "hire them and fire them" club.
Both Chris Wilder and now Karl Robinson have made it on to the top 10 longest-serving managers list in their time at Oxford and there is a rule of thumb in football that persevering with an incumbent can lead to sunlit uplands.
I sat many times in the early months of Michael Appleton's time at the Kassam Stadium fielding calls to our phone-in calling for him to go.
By the time he left two and half years later he had two Wembley finals and a promotion under his belt.
U's planning for next season?
What has made this week more difficult for the club to navigate is the evident unrest among supporters in the stadium.
It has been a long time since there have been such audible chants for the manager to go.
It is hard to assess whether the calls are coming from the majority of fans, because in life those who are most unhappy and want change will be loudest, but it is clear the numbers are not small.
What is also clear is that there is little appetite in the boardroom to replace the head coach.
Tim Williams, the CEO, said this week that "it is not good enough" after three straight defeats - where in each one Oxford had gone 2-0 behind - but "it's not just about just one person".
It was a not unskilful attempt at making it clear Robinson's job was safe for now, but without giving a "vote of confidence" and all the negative connotations that go with that.
His uncomfortable, but almost certainly accurate assessment that Oxford can't seriously expect to make a run at a play-off place, when in February they are closer to the relegation zone, leads us to an understanding that United are planning for next season now.
Silent supporters a big concern
With their head of recruitment shortly departing for Derby County, recruiting a recruiter must be a priority now.
It is easy to forget that only last week the club won a major battle in its bid to build and own a new stadium that could fund Championship football.
Had Oxford won, not lost, their last three games they would be in the top six going into this weekend.
Yet they cannot lose sight of the fact that they still need at least five more wins to ensure it is League One they are planning for next season, not League Two.
Even assuming they get those wins, supporters will take some convincing that ambitions of reaching the Championship in short order, are not fanciful in the extreme.
The biggest concern to Oxford United now, for all the noise from doubters at their games, should actually be the supporters who leave the ground quietly, or don't even go at all.
Apathy is a silent killer.
You can hear every Oxford United match live on BBC Radio Oxford with Jerome Sale.
