Jerome Sale column: Oxford United preparing for tough off-season after disappointing League One campaign
- Published
A dark cloud hung over Oxford United for most of the 2022-23 League One season but they did just enough to avoid relegation, finishing two points off the bottom four
No-one gets involved in football to be miserable, but sometimes in the game it is imperative to embrace negative emotion.
At its extremes, for example, when watching your cup-final opponents lift the trophy, or a relegated team vowing to bounce back, it can be motivating - you never want to feel like that again.
At Oxford United this week the feeling is less raw than that, but still one of failure, not success.
Cambridge staved off relegation in the season's dying days and celebrated like a team that had won promotion - and why not?
Staying in League One was mission accomplished for them.
Within seconds of Oxford being safe everyone's conversation included the words "it cannot be like this again".
Oxford have a budget that was not far off top six, yet finished in the bottom six in League One.
That it could have been worse is a warning, not merely a source of relief.
Oxford nearly pay price - now time to rebuild
Chairman Grant Ferguson has pinpointed failures in back-to-back transfer windows as the catalyst for United's troubles this season, and few would argue that there lies the reason Oxford were never in the promotion race.
He acknowledges that with the benefit of hindsight it is clear a managerial change should have come sooner and the fact that it did not, amid an epic run without a win, allowed the U's to be plunged into the relegation fight.
The comfort for Oxford fans is that the club is not in denial.
They are not putting a season of massive underachievement down to bad luck.
Those who questioned the appointment of Liam Manning as head coach in place of Karl Robinson in March seemed most concerned about his football firefighting abilities, not his capability at leading a long-term project.
He got the two wins the club needed, now he can rebuild for the future.
'Much work to do this summer'
The test for United is proving that they have not just identified what went wrong, but have learned the lessons.
Manning and recently promoted head of recruitment Ed Waldron are relatively inexperienced operators at the sharp end of the transfer market, but they will draw on the wealth of knowledge of former Newcastle United, Manchester City and England coach Derek Fazackerley.
I get the sense they aim to work to a plan - a return to a previously successful trading model.
There are no guarantees though, and even if successful it may take time.
The final-day defeat by relegated Accrington was the season in microcosm - there were moments of promise but ultimately it was worryingly disappointing.
It reminded the 10,000 Oxford fans who turned up that there was much work to do this summer.
You can hear every Oxford United match live on BBC Radio Oxford with Jerome Sale.
