New Chairman Sumrith 'Tiger' Thanakarnjanasuth has been outlining how the infrastructure of the club will work now that he has joined Oxford United.
Tiger has had a whirlwind first ten days in charge of the club with the search for a new Manager top of the agenda, but there has already been plenty of hard work going on behind the scenes.
“I was really happy with the welcome I received from everyone - the staff, the players and the fans” he told us “and as I said on the first day, the club is in a very strong position from which to move forward.
“Obviously the fans want a new Manager in place as quickly as possible; so do I! I have talked to some outstanding candidates over the last week or so and just want one more opportunity to meet them face to face towards the end of the week. I am not old school - I can communicate in a number of ways and am working every day on this and if we can conclude things quickly that’s great.
“We are looking for the right man to make an immediate impact and lift things. I want to make the fans so proud of this club and to do that I will always aim high. If the right person comes in and makes that impact and we win ten out of 12 games then we can still make the play-offs. There is nothing wrong with aiming for that; every Manager starts fresh and some get results straight away, others take a little longer.
“At the very least we will have a Manager in place for the last 10 or 11 games who will have a chance to get to know the players, the coaching staff and the club and be able to see the full picture so they are not starting from zero this summer.
“Appointing the right person is the priority but we have also been looking at plenty of other things and I have been really impressed by the attitude and work ethic from all of the staff. I don’t see any reason to make wide changes in the management structure behind the scenes at the club and I will be leaning on Niall McWilliams as Managing Director to become more involved; something he is happy to do.
“One thing we have discussed a lot is our communication with fans. I have a very good relationship with Oxvox and will be at Wimbledon where I hope to meet as many fans as possible. We will hold a Fans Forum very soon but I would like the new Manager to be present for that as well.
“Meanwhile I think fans will start to notice small changes; more marketing and more interaction. On my first day I talked about ‘Oxford’ as a world famous name and we have had very positive talks about how to include that in club branding. I have total respect for the club’s history and this is our 125th anniversary so we want to mark that occasion with something special on and off the pitch.”