The season may be over but the Board of Oxford United are busy working with Karl Robinson and his team to put the final plans in place for next season.
Chairman Sumrith 'Tiger' Thanakarnjanasuth told us:
“We have been busy already. The Board meeting together for the last home game of the season was an important thing because we got to talk face to face with Niall McWilliams. Karl Robinson and Dan Harris who are the three men heading up the off field activities, the football and the Academy: three key things for us in building a successful club.
“They loved seeing the fans in full voice and this summer will see us able to focus on getting things right for a successful season. Karl is talking to the players again today and we have targets in mind who we feel will strengthen key areas in a squad that finished the season very strongly.
“Erick has been busy with the Indonesian elections and Anin has been extremely busy but both will be more involved this year and with Horst and Zaki we feel we have a very strong Board who only want to bring success to this fantastic club.”
Erick certainly enjoyed seeing the U’s up close against Doncaster
“When you see football in England, it is different to any other country,” he said.“It is exciting and emotional, but also Oxford has a big brand. This is why me and our friends want to support Oxford to become a big team in the future. With all the experience I have, it is good to support the management and stakeholders. It is good to build something here in England.”
“I am going to support Tiger as are the other board members over here. Financially too, with all the other stakeholders. I think the manager will keep the core of the team and then from that we build.”
Zaki has been around the club throughout last season and believes that the shared experience will stand the U’s in good stead:
“I think we’ll see what happened as a season of transition” he told us. “Of all of us I have been at the most games and so when Tiger talks about the passion of the fans I can also relate to the frustration they felt at times. It was a steep learning curve for all of us but look at the way the team grew and grew and the way that the whole backroom team became so much closer.
“As a Board we need to balance sustainability and sensible investment but also recognise our duty to look after the club for the fans and help build a team under Karl’s leadership that can compete at the top- end of the table.”
Meanwhile Anindya has been giving his thoughts on business in his native Indonesia to Bloomberg. While the conversation is 100% business orientated, not football, we thought fans might like to see and hear the interview: HERE
We have a full exclusive interview with Horst Geicke right here tomorrow...