CEO Tim Williams writes:
On behalf of everyone at Oxford United, I’d like to wish our supporters a very Happy New Year. I hope you all enjoyed the festive period. The beginning of any year brings with it a fresh wave of optimism and determination and 2024 is no different.
This season, for many reasons, has already been one of significant progress for the club. The Men’s Team appointed Des Buckingham as Head Coach and currently sit fifth in League One, Sam Rose became the first ever Full-Time Manager of Oxford United Women and images of the club’s proposed new stadium were released. We have also continued to invest in our Academy to ensure that we can attract the best young players in the region.
The Owners, Board and Senior Leadership Team are ambitious though and are committed to delivering long-term growth and success to the club. We have a plan in place to create sustainable transformation and any accomplishments to date are part of that process, not the culmination of it. Every decision we take is with Oxford United’s best interests at heart and together, and that includes the fans, we will make the club one that truly and proudly represents the whole of Oxford and Oxfordshire.
The next few months are important ones, and the club is well positioned to deal with what lies ahead.
For many of our supporters, the main indicator of progress is on pitch success. During the summer we invested significantly in the men’s team to ensure we had the quality and depth to be competitive. We have got a very clear strategy, led by Ed Waldron, to continue to strengthen the squad with players who can not only contribute now but, crucially, grow with the club.
Every transfer window we will assess where we are and look at what opportunities are out there. With injuries in a number of key positions and the way we utilise the loan market, we will be active this January to recruit players so that the team can continue to compete at the top end of the table. We’ll be sharing updates and news very soon.
The recruitment and development of talent is vital. When Des joined the club, he made it very clear that he wanted to assess the current staffing set-up before making any changes or bringing in new coaches. I’m delighted to confirm that on the back of this ongoing review, Chris Hackett will be assuming the role of Des’s Assistant to work alongside Craig Short and Lewis Price. We have also agreed a deal to appoint a First Team Analyst and are in the process of finalising a start date for them.
Away from the pitch, the overall outlook for the club is also really positive. Retail delivered its best ever month in December, we continue to see incredible attendance figures (the last two home league games were sold out), sign-ups to our membership scheme have risen, and we have significantly increased investment in our brand and matchday activations. In addition to this, we will be sharing details of an enhanced fan engagement strategy in the very near future.
We also continue to make real progress with our plans for the new stadium. This is a once in a generation opportunity to provide a new home for sport, entertainment, business, community, education and tourism which the whole of Oxfordshire can be proud of. It is imperative that we get every single detail right and a huge amount of work is being done behind the scenes so that we do. The coming weeks will see the release of further details of the updates we’ve made to our plans following significant public consultation.
Thank you to all of you for your ongoing support. We have every reason to look forward to this year with excitement and positivity.
Yours,
Tim