Oxford United (h) - 09/12/25

[...]

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Google it, click it, scroll down to radar and tap on the map.

Pinch n zoom accordingly. 👌

[Dreams of 1995]

25 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

I would say that after witnessing the last 15 years, if there is one thing nobody at the club cares about, it's a pissed off fanbase.

Fair point Mark.

Maybe change that part for negative press then.

[Comfortably numb]

Pouring down in Clitheroe now. Looks like we may not have seen the end of it after all🌨️🌨️☔☔

[...]

5 minutes ago, Comfortably numb said:

Pouring down in Clitheroe now. Looks like we may not have seen the end of it after all🌨️🌨️☔☔

According to radar the last of the rain is around 2pm and breaks off for 3pm for the evening. 

Edited 2 hours ago by ...

[KidderStreetNoise]

44 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

The second to last thing this club want is this game not to go ahead

The last thing they want is for the game to be abandoned halfway through

I would not put it past the club to be eering on the side of postponement to save themselves the hassle of a pissed off fan base

Agree with all other posters - turnout is going to be shocking. If you were Oxford, why bother? If you're Rovers, stay in the warmth and throw a few beers in the fridge

This is what Venkys FC looks like chaps. A thoroughly unpleasant product with a careless board and a budget you couldn't run a doggy day care on properly. I'll say it again - £6m in infrastructure investment in 15 years. It is no surprise things are creaking. 400,000 a year on the Rovers estate is survival money only. It paints over the cracks, gets some filler in and throws some lovely foam into areas they want to patch up. It does not improve

They'd love it to be abandoned, another game to sell tickets for, sell hospitality for. An extra home game is perfect for the regime

[Tomphil2]

43 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

The second to last thing this club want is this game not to go ahead

The last thing they want is for the game to be abandoned halfway through

I would not put it past the club to be eering on the side of postponement to save themselves the hassle of a pissed off fan base

Agree with all other posters - turnout is going to be shocking. If you were Oxford, why bother? If you're Rovers, stay in the warmth and throw a few beers in the fridge

This is what Venkys FC looks like chaps. A thoroughly unpleasant product with a careless board and a budget you couldn't run a doggy day care on properly. I'll say it again - £6m in infrastructure investment in 15 years. It is no surprise things are creaking. 400,000 a year on the Rovers estate is survival money only. It paints over the cracks, gets some filler in and throws some lovely foam into areas they want to patch up. It does not improve

Yet tens of millions have gone a awful signings wages, agents commission and pay offs and wages/pay off for directors who couldn't direct themselves to the bog.

Now look what we are left with now they've run out of money or the willingness to spend it.

Absolutely shameful but hey rejoice because we are still in business and paying clowns for the circus.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Its not perfect when nobody turns up!

[Penwortham Blue]

9 minutes ago, Comfortably numb said:

Pouring down in Clitheroe now. Looks like we may not have seen the end of it after all🌨️🌨️☔☔

Ribchester also but a lot lighter than 10 minutes ago.

[Tom]

I think it should be ok but that’s not the point, after the shambles of the weekend they should be giving updates and some reassurance rather than pretending otherwise 

[benhben]

Panned it down all day here in Morecambe. Very wet November/December so far.

Love that the main topic on here now is the weather. Sign of the clubs decline.

[Penwortham Blue]

21 minutes ago, Tom said:

I think it should be ok but that’s not the point, after the shambles of the weekend they should be giving updates and some reassurance rather than pretending otherwise 

Frankly, I’m hoping it is off as I don’t want to go tonight. However, if it is on, I will be in my seat and surrounded by thousands of empty ones 😞

[Dreams of 1995]

12 minutes ago, Tomphil2 said:

Yet tens of millions have gone a awful signings wages, agents commission and pay offs and wages/pay off for directors who couldn't direct themselves to the bog.

Now look what we are left with now they've run out of money or the willingness to spend it.

Absolutely shameful but hey rejoice because we are still in business and paying clowns for the circus.

That is the scale of incompetence at this club Tomphil

They have put in over £200m; they have wrote off around £60m. The remainder sits as a debt owed to Venky's. It will not be outside of their commercial mind that, should the club ever go under (only possible if they pull their funding commitments), then the minimum they can expect to recover is 25% of 140m - around £35m. That is assuming I am understanding the 25p in the pound rule by the FA.

And herein lies the issue with our 'model'. The more money the Venkys put in simply to offset losses, the more they saddle the club in debt (albeit, 'friendly debt'), and ultimately the more they get returned on sale.

Very, very, very little of the £200m debt saddled to this club has been invested. It is just dead operating losses. Our (BRFC) accounts show a net asset of -£118m. We are insolvent. VLL show a +£27m of assets. Assume this is the club. We are still a positive on their overall Venky's group accounts. 

Player trading - profit. Revenue - down. Wages - down. Everything is in the favour of Venky's except still, after all of this time, requiring £15 - 20m per year "investment"...it makes no sense. 

Now, we can talk about Pasha's talk of "benevolence". In pure accounting terms, it is true. In all 15 years VLL has never took a single penny out of the club in fees, dividends, rent or interest. But is that a big deal? And what does he mean by that model now being over? Does he mean that Venky's are now intending to take a return; hence the increase rents for the community trust, or do BRFC now need to pay the holding company for the training ground? I don't know. But this is the only part of Venky's ownership which so far has been good and their man on the ground is telling us that is over. WTF.

Just in general downbeat with the whole thing. This drainage is just another fiasco: fax machines, western unions, family threats, crumbling infrastructure. Venky's came here to increase their reputation. They have certainly done that but for all the wrong reasons.

[StHelensRover]

Very heavy rain forecast until between 2-3pm then not much rain for the 5 hours up to kick off. I'm guessing and hoping that 5 hours is long enough for the pitch to go from a saturated state to a playable state, even with our busted up old facilities?

If they have staff out with those rollers for a couple of hours, will that do the trick before the teams warm-up at about 7.15pm?

[RevidgeBlue]

12 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

That is the scale of incompetence at this club Tomphil

They have put in over £200m; they have wrote off around £60m. The remainder sits as a debt owed to Venky's. It will not be outside of their commercial mind that, should the club ever go under (only possible if they pull their funding commitments), then the minimum they can expect to recover is 25% of 140m - around £35m. That is assuming I am understanding the 25p in the pound rule by the FA.

And herein lies the issue with our 'model'. The more money the Venkys put in simply to offset losses, the more they saddle the club in debt (albeit, 'friendly debt'), and ultimately the more they get returned on sale.

Very, very, very little of the £200m debt saddled to this club has been invested. It is just dead operating losses. Our (BRFC) accounts show a net asset of -£118m. We are insolvent. VLL show a +£27m of assets. Assume this is the club. We are still a positive on their overall Venky's group accounts. 

Player trading - profit. Revenue - down. Wages - down. Everything is in the favour of Venky's except still, after all of this time, requiring £15 - 20m per year "investment"...it makes no sense. 

Now, we can talk about Pasha's talk of "benevolence". In pure accounting terms, it is true. In all 15 years VLL has never took a single penny out of the club in fees, dividends, rent or interest. But is that a big deal? And what does he mean by that model now being over? Does he mean that Venky's are now intending to take a return; hence the increase rents for the community trust, or do BRFC now need to pay the holding company for the training ground? I don't know. But this is the only part of Venky's ownership which so far has been good and their man on the ground is telling us that is over. WTF.

Just in general downbeat with the whole thing. This drainage is just another fiasco: fax machines, western unions, family threats, crumbling infrastructure. Venky's came here to increase their reputation. They have certainly done that but for all the wrong reasons.

Yep.

This 25p in the pound rule is ludicrous imo.

For every £10m they inject from now on just to cover bills and keep the lights on, the potential purchase price to a new owner goes up by another £2.5m.

A reward for bad ownership.

 

[philipl]

Just hope the guys with the soak up rollers are more on the ball tonight.

On Saturday standing water was visible on the pitch just before half time. Why weren't they out there rolling through the interval?

[StHelensRover]

6 minutes ago, philipl said:

Just hope the guys with the soak up rollers are more on the ball tonight.

On Saturday standing water was visible on the pitch just before half time. Why weren't they out there rolling through the interval?

I was also very surprised they weren't more visibly proactive on Saturday. Before the game and during half time, but I don't know much about all the technology. Having said that, I'm not sure it would have been enough, just to use the rollers, as the rain was so constant that almost as much water was hitting the pitch as they were taking off and it didn't stop.

Edited 1 hour ago by StHelensRover

[Tomphil2]

And the Venky logo still gets flashed all around the world on tv screens and social media clips with the majority unaware of all the nonsense even if they bother to find out who and what the company is.

A small kickback for their continued ownership of the club and that exposure in pure paid for advertising terms and exposure on multiple platforms would certainly cost a few million a year.

[TheKitGuy]

River has dropped 35cm since 8am

 

It is now at the same level it was just after half time on Saturday

Edited 59 minutes ago by TheKitGuy

[G Somerset Rover]

It will very likely go ahead but only because they are bloody lucky the rain is stopping early/mid PM rather than a few hours later. 

Im pretty confident that we won’t have to wait too long for the next postponement or abandonment though. Bring on the shame. Something, anything to push these absolute morons ever so slightly closer to the exit door.

Edited 55 minutes ago by G Somerset Rover

[Tomphil2]

Riverwatch needs its own thread it's the new chaddometer.

[DE.]

Was there any statement from the EFL about our second abandonment for rain in a matter of months, or have they been silent on the matter as well? If they aren't taking any action then I consider them just as complicit as the club at this point. A template statement about replaying the match doesn't address any of the obvious concerns. 

[davulsukur]

So as there is a 30% chance the game will go ahead and probably at least a 15% chance we might get the full 90mins in, back to the horrific news that we'll probably have to field Sidnei Taveres from the start, as Tronstad, Forshaw, Montgomery are all injured and Ismael confirmed that Bradji won't be starting anytime soon.

--------------------Pears

------Miller-----McLoughlin--Riberio

Alebiosu--------------------------De Neve

------------TGH--------Taveres

-------------Cantwell/Mori

-----------Ohashi----Gudjohnsen

Someone should probably get a rain dance going because we aren't winning this game with that lineup, I don't even know if Pratt is fit to play.

Edited 47 minutes ago by davulsukur

[Elrovers]

3 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

So as there is a 30% chance the game will go ahead and probably at least a 15% chance we might get the full 90mins in, back to the horrific news that we'll probably have to field Sidnei Taveres from the start, as Tronstad, Forshaw, Montgomery are all injured and Ismael confirmed that Bradji won't be starting anytime soon.

--------------------Pears

------Miller-----McLoughlin--Riberio

Alebiosu--------------------------De Neve

------------TGH--------Taveres

-------------Cantwell/Mori

-----------Ohashi----Gudjohnsen

Someone should probably get a rain dance going because we aren't winning this game with that lineup, I don't even know if Pratt is fit to play.

Pratt is fit to play. Was just taken off as precaution as he was on a yellow. 

[Hasta]

5 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Ismael confirmed that Bradji won't be starting anytime soon.

What an absolute waste of funds this lad has been. How can he still not be available to start.

[...]

1 minute ago, Hasta said:

What an absolute waste of funds this lad has been. How can he still not be available to start.

Dennis 2.0