Chairman Sumrith 'Tiger' Thanakarnjanasuth has been speaking to iFollow as Oxford United’s summer starts to take shape, and believes the U’s are on the verge of at least one new signing that will make fans sit up and take notice.
“I think we are very very close to one” he said “The closest. Someone the fans know and who I think is a big signing for us. I want to name names but we will wait until everything is completed but I can say that it’s a fantastic signing, one we know will get the fans excited, and I hope a signal that we mean business again this season.
“We have Joel Cooper already - Gavin Whyte and Mark Sykes gave us great references for him and it worked out OK when we signed both of them from Northern Ireland- and we are working on two or three more right now. Sometimes things move quickly, sometimes they take a little time but our recruitment team are excellent and are working very long hours. We look in the UK and Europe and by the time we kick-off we will have a very strong team again.
“There is a lot to do and it is a very busy time for all of us. We have new kits to launch, signings, pre-season games, a lot to organise. But the biggest thing is season tickets. Now we know when we kick off we are looking at how we can get season ticket holders in to games and we will try our best to do that, but it has to be safe for everyone.
“As soon as it is safe I am desperate to come over and watch games with the fans again. I heard a lot about Swindon games: I can’t wait to experience that, and there are big teams like Sunderland, Hull, Portsmouth- some very big games.
"But I want fans to know that I am so grateful and amazed that we sold close to 4,000 season tickets when we didn’t even know when we would play again or if fans could be there.
“At our level season tickets are our biggest revenue so I want to thank everyone who has bought them already, and we want as many people as possible to buy them now and join us for another season where we keep moving forward again.
“We all felt the same after Wembley. I gave Karl some space, the players got away quite quickly and we have all come to terms with it in our own ways but then we all agreed. That is gone. Time to get to work and go again.”
See the full interview right now in iFollow