When Firoz Kassam stumped up the £1 being asked by outgoing chairman Robin Herd to assume control of Oxford United in April 1999 the tune being sung by the clubs PR operators cooed a fresh harmony that promised to deliver the Us from the threshold of financial ruin. Memories of fans attending matches with buckets to collect hand-outs that would keep the players wages rolling in were replaced with the promise of sustainability, as Kassam wheeled and dealed with creditors to shrink a crippling debt of £15million into something around which a future could be built. Relegation to the third tier barely matted the gloss of what was hailed as the early steps in a revival for a club that had sat proudly in the first division as recently as 1988. A new stadium, on hold since the stagnation of the Herd era, was given clearance to continue work. The yellow of Uniteds badge, for a fleeting moment, glowed gold. Fiscal consolidation never did translate to a revival on the pitch. As the 2013/14 season gets under way Oxford begin a thirteenth consecutive year in exile from the top three divisions, with a spell in the non-League still providing a […]
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