So, if someone says that it's going to be hot in July - a particular favourite amongst newspapers - the opposite is that it's going to snow. Because the opposite
is more surprising than the reality; the story is redundant.
Whether that holds in the world of 24-hour rolling news is
highly debatable. Quite simply there are just not enough genuine news stories
to fill up the all-day real-time media machine.
We become anaesthetised to this, wholly accepting that
the news we are given is not in fact of much, or any, value. The Daily Mail have
taken it to the extreme by apparently considering news to be factual
descriptions of women wearing clothes in a place somewhere on earth. Given the
opposite; naked women on the moon would be considered somewhat more surprising, the existence of
women wearing clothes is not news. While there is a low muttering of disgust at
the vacuousness of it all and the objectification of the women concerned, we
are generally accepting of its existence.
As Mark Ashton appeared on Malcolm Boyden's Radio Oxford
show on Wednesday, Twitter muttered a genuine appreciation of his performance.
In a summer of silence, anything parping out of the top table at Oxford United
must feel like a feast to some.
It was a cloying matey interview, Boyden knows Ashton from somewhere although it wasn't clear from where; both come from the same part of the country and appear to be lay West Brom fans, perhaps they boing boing'ed next to each other at the Hawthorns back in the day.
Ashton was allowed to remain deep within his comfort zone; ladling on thick, heavy globs of media-grease throughout the 20 minutegrilling simmer. He talked of Oxford being 'something special', and creating 'something special', about the community work being 'a passion'. Boyden echoed him back, almost hypnotised, 'You're really passionate about this aren't you'. 'Yes I am' said Ashton in the tone of a man who had just been asked the challenging question of confirming his own name.
Amidst the matey-ness, he also talked in a faintly sinister collective tense; 'The way we do things...', 'What we do...' it gave the impression of a masked cabal rolling into town to get whatever they want before everything all falls apart or they get bored or they run out of money. This is something I've yet to resolve in my head; what is the motivation for them buying into the club? It might be success on the pitch, but there are other motivations in buying football clubs, not all of them in the long term interest of club.
Perhaps the 'we' was his family, who are apparently as 'passionately' committed to the club as everyone else. On the face of it Ashton has got himself a new job; but he gave the impression that this was akin to his family converting wholesale to Mormonism. There was a frankly improbably anecdote, set up by Boyden apropos of nothing, of Ashton's son switching allegiance from West Brom to Oxford on FIFA, and how he now looked at Oxford's results above all others (of both of our pre-season friendlies, presumably).
Basically, Ashton didn't say anything at all, certainly nothing that passes the old journalistic test. There was nothing that would allow you to pass any judgement - good or bad. The club needs players, but the right ones, we need firm financial footing, the club needs to own it's ground, it needs to engage with the community. We know all this, Lenagan said it, Kassam said it, Herd said it, Maxwell said it. Some of them delivered some of it, nobody did it all. Effective strategy is not about coming up with a list of ideas, it's about prioritising them and funding their delivery.
Talking of strategy; there are basically two questions that need answering when talking to the Chief Executive of Oxford United in 2014. In the short term; how much money is now available to invest in the team to help it move beyond its current position? The club cannot move forward much beyond its existing position within its existing business model, the only immediate opportunity is the unlocking of extra funds from outside that model.
And secondly, for its long term, how are the club going to own its own ground? Owning the ground is the new business model; whether that be at the Kassam or elsewhere. Without those two issues addressed, the latter in particular, Oxford are set to bob around the upper reaches of League 2 for the foreseeable future regardless of the owners or the level of passion they're prepared to invest in it. Neither question has even come close to being answered in the last two weeks. They've talked about 'the passion' to do all these things, they've not talked about 'the how'.
I don't blame Boyden for soft peddleing; local radio needs football. Senior bean counters at the BBC must be constantly questioning the value of signing cheques to pay for another documentary on the thriving West Oxfordshire jazz scene of the 1950s. Local football is a rare 'killer app' and a protective forcefield that almost justifies the existence of regionalised radio and TV. If you're Radio Oxford, you don't come out fighting against the owners of your local club. If the shop does shut, then the station's access to club news and interviews will dry up and that weakens its viability in the media landscape.
But, the fans listening in soporific stupor would do well not the be drawn into the mythical powers of 'passion' that Ashton is currently using as his magical staff. It is not so much his intentions that concern me; few people come into a club with the deliberately intention of it failing, but it is his competence and priorities which have yet to come to the fore.
Ashton was allowed to remain deep within his comfort zone; ladling on thick, heavy globs of media-grease throughout the 20 minute
Amidst the matey-ness, he also talked in a faintly sinister collective tense; 'The way we do things...', 'What we do...' it gave the impression of a masked cabal rolling into town to get whatever they want before everything all falls apart or they get bored or they run out of money. This is something I've yet to resolve in my head; what is the motivation for them buying into the club? It might be success on the pitch, but there are other motivations in buying football clubs, not all of them in the long term interest of club.
Perhaps the 'we' was his family, who are apparently as 'passionately' committed to the club as everyone else. On the face of it Ashton has got himself a new job; but he gave the impression that this was akin to his family converting wholesale to Mormonism. There was a frankly improbably anecdote, set up by Boyden apropos of nothing, of Ashton's son switching allegiance from West Brom to Oxford on FIFA, and how he now looked at Oxford's results above all others (of both of our pre-season friendlies, presumably).
Basically, Ashton didn't say anything at all, certainly nothing that passes the old journalistic test. There was nothing that would allow you to pass any judgement - good or bad. The club needs players, but the right ones, we need firm financial footing, the club needs to own it's ground, it needs to engage with the community. We know all this, Lenagan said it, Kassam said it, Herd said it, Maxwell said it. Some of them delivered some of it, nobody did it all. Effective strategy is not about coming up with a list of ideas, it's about prioritising them and funding their delivery.
Talking of strategy; there are basically two questions that need answering when talking to the Chief Executive of Oxford United in 2014. In the short term; how much money is now available to invest in the team to help it move beyond its current position? The club cannot move forward much beyond its existing position within its existing business model, the only immediate opportunity is the unlocking of extra funds from outside that model.
And secondly, for its long term, how are the club going to own its own ground? Owning the ground is the new business model; whether that be at the Kassam or elsewhere. Without those two issues addressed, the latter in particular, Oxford are set to bob around the upper reaches of League 2 for the foreseeable future regardless of the owners or the level of passion they're prepared to invest in it. Neither question has even come close to being answered in the last two weeks. They've talked about 'the passion' to do all these things, they've not talked about 'the how'.
I don't blame Boyden for soft peddleing; local radio needs football. Senior bean counters at the BBC must be constantly questioning the value of signing cheques to pay for another documentary on the thriving West Oxfordshire jazz scene of the 1950s. Local football is a rare 'killer app' and a protective forcefield that almost justifies the existence of regionalised radio and TV. If you're Radio Oxford, you don't come out fighting against the owners of your local club. If the shop does shut, then the station's access to club news and interviews will dry up and that weakens its viability in the media landscape.
But, the fans listening in soporific stupor would do well not the be drawn into the mythical powers of 'passion' that Ashton is currently using as his magical staff. It is not so much his intentions that concern me; few people come into a club with the deliberately intention of it failing, but it is his competence and priorities which have yet to come to the fore.
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