The Oxblogger Survey 2025 came at a time of relief and positivity. Most Oxford fans haven’t experienced a season where avoiding the drop is a success. So, how has that impacted your feelings towards the team, management, owners and the general vibe? And how might that compare to the elation of promotion a year ago. There’s only one way to find out. 

Mood

One of the reasons for starting this survey was to provide benchmarks for our progress. Silverware and titles, even promotions, are a bad benchmark in almost every club because most exist to survive rather than thrive in that way. 

Our club, in the main, exists to make people happy, a largely unquantifiable measure. Still, we try. You ranked your mood at the end of the season as 8.5/10. This was an increase since Christmas, but a drop since this time last year. However, the post-promotion 9.4 was undoubtedly fuelled by a series of unexpected and unusual results. That adrenaline shot is a bit like my son’s friend who was so excited to see Billy Eilish recently her heart rate hit 194. It’s not a rate you can expect to sustain.

So, happiness seems to start at around 8/10 and 8.5 seems to be as good as we can reasonably expect without an injection of something extraordinary.

Squad

As the clamour for new signings each summer show, you can never have enough new players. As a result, your squad is never good enough. This is particularly true when the sands around your shift. We probably have the best squad we’ve had for ten years, but when you’re surrounded by teams who are spending 10-15 times what you’re able, the relative value drops.

So, given that we are generally happy with where we are as a club, the rating of 6.6 – the same as it was at Christmas – would suggest we think we’re good enough to sustain our happiness, which is probably the benchmark we need to set. But I’d say that we’re at the bottom of the ‘good enough’ spectrum. Relegation would surely see a dip in happiness, and given how close we were to going down, it wouldn’t take much to see us slip.

Manager

Rating the manager is never easy, while they are normally the focal point for the success and failure of the club, there are many factors which are outside their control. Added to that, while squads evolve, one manager is totally different to another. 

The last survey was a weird one; Des Buckingham had just been fired, so rating Gary Rowett was unfair. You were happy with Des even as we slipped into the relegation zone – rating him as 7.4 – but there was undoubtedly a dose of sentiment sweetening the score.

You also predicted that Gary Rowett would be a good replacement, and results suggest that’s true. With a squad largely similar in quality, Rowett’s rating has crept above Buckingham’s. Oddly, though, you’ve been happier with other managers, most notably Karl Robinson.

Board 

While results do influence the performance of the board, we have always rated them highly relative to both the manager and squad. Criticism of Tim Williams and Adam Benson are not without foundation, particularly around communication, but we do seem to be balancing ambition and stability well and edging towards a new stadium.

Since Christmas, the board’s rating has increased to nearly the level they were at when we were promoted, certainly back to a typical level looking historically. No doubt results have helped as well as the dissipation of the shock of Des Buckingham’s sacking. Football fans have short memories. 

Relationship

The relationship between club and fans seems most closely tied to the performance of the board. Although we’re always looking to strengthen the squad, there is a degree of loyalty to their effort on our behalf. The board, however, can see their ratings slip from the most minor mishap. 

Much like the board, the relationship bounced back from last Christmas but lagged behind our promotion peak. Things have been surprisingly volatile in recent years, so it’s hard to say whether 7.2 represents a good score or a bad one. 

Compared to 5 years ago

5 years ago – 17.6% predicted the club would be in a significantly better position than it was back then. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, 22.8% think it’s considerably better. This would suggest that the club has out-performed its longer-term outlook. 

47.8 – a bit, 30.4 – same, 3.8 – a bit worse

Now 85.9% considerably better, 12.8 – a bit, 1.3 – about same

That optimism flow through to predictions about the next five years 22.8% think we’ll be in a considerably better position, fuelled, one might expect, by a move to a new stadium rather than results on the pitch.

42.3 – a bit, 30.9 – same, 3.4 – a bit worse, 0.7 a lot worse

Favourite player

Your favourite player last season, predictably, was Ciaron Brown with 37% of the vote, the ubiquitous Cameron Brannagan was in second with 29%. Nobody else got more than 10% of the vote with Greg Leigh (9.5%), Michael Helik (7.4%) and Jamie Cumming (4.7%) taking up the minor places.

Cameron Brannagan’s endures as ever, he’s been ever present through the history of the survey, but has shown remarkable consistency over the years. It really shows his loyalty to the club that only he and Sam Long remain from that first squad and that he has consistently ranked in the top two or three players in every survey since.

Moment

The season was full of moment, lots of people mentioned the opening game of the season against Norwich, beating Chris Wilder’s Sheffield Untied and Mark Harris’ goal at Blackburn as all standouts. Des Buckingham’s Boys Get Sad Too statement was also mentioned as was the medical incident against XX. You’ve also got to feel for the poor soul who said our 0-0 draw at Stoke was the standout moment because it was the only game they saw live.

But, of all the moments, three came up most often. Sam Long’s winner at Sheffield Wednesday was mentioned many times, a critical building block in our final survival push from a talismanic player. 

The second most popular was Cameron Brannagan’s howitzer against Cardiff. Iconic in so many ways.

But, the winner, by a large margin was the confirmation of survival against Sunderland in our final home game. Not so much a moment as a culmination of all the moments that had gone before it.

The Oxblogger Newsletter

This article was first published in the Oxblogger Newsletter, a bi-monthly Oxford United fanzine by the fans for the fans. See the whole issue here and subscribe to get each issue straight to your in-box each.