THE GAFFER

Ross Jenkins

Welcome back everyone and I hope you are wrapped up warm and ready to get behind us this afternoon as we take on Buxton. We maybe owe our visitors one after recent results against them and that should set things up nicely for a good game for you to enjoy.

It's been cold all week but one of the advantages of a pitch like ours is that you can train on it even in the depths of winter and that has allowed us to prepare properly after the disappointment of the game at Radcliffe being called off last Saturday. I actually think common sense won that day because calling it off early meant nobody had to travel: I saw pictures from games last weekend where there were big crowds already in the stands when the game got postponed: not great for anyone.

Today will be our first game of 2026 and it's important that we set the right tone for what we want in the second half of the season. There will hopefully be a couple of new faces but whoever plays we want intensity, passion and we want that elusive quality that we have been searching for all season: consistency. It is so frustrating to win a home game 5-1 then lost the next one 3-1! The same thing is true away from home: three draws from four away games is decent, but we had enough chances to turn at least one of those into a win. Small margins, but things we have to improve on if we are to get ourselves up the league to where we want to be.

I mentioned new faces and you'll spot one of those off the pitch today where Paul Robinson will join us. Robbo has been with us for a few weeks now using his experience and knowledge to help our younger players in particular and that has been great to see. He's fitted in really well and we've done some great work over the last few weeks so make sure you make him feel at home this afternoon.

Hopefully, we all come away smiling and with three points in the bag.

 ROSS

ED TEACHER

Chris Williams catches up with Eddie Odhiambo

Eddie Odhiambo is a hard man to pin down. For much of Wednesday I chased him round the MGroup Stadium trying to find a few minutes to catch up for this interview. First he was in the dugout coaching a team, then he was in a strategy meeting, then he was delivering a lecture. By the time I finally get five minutes with him he is wolfing down a sandwich before another classroom session begins….

 “Just a normal day” he says, stubbornly refusing to share his lunch. “I’ve been here for  two and a bit years now and love what I do, and what we are doing as a club. I’ve got the luxury of not being completely in football: I’m in education. I'm in community, and it just happens that football is the catch for both of them”.

Having worked tirelessly as Head of Football after joining from Oxford United  there was a change of title and role for the highly likeable former Southampton youngster just before Christmas.

 “Yes, so I’m now Head of Football, Community and Culture. What that actually means is I am responsible for the development of people and that includes staff and our learners as I affectionately call them, for their development in football, and that can work many different ways and whatever the relevant pathway is; coaching, analysis, playing.  Basically, when they leave us and move into the wider world, making sure they are fully prepared for whatever they choose to do next.

 “We've got approximately 130 Learners on our full-time programmes, then you think of our junior and youth set up, which is now  500, plus then you think of our staff…. there's a fair number now

 “But what that shows is that I don't do my job alone, and we are blessed with some amazing people here. I’m under no illusion, people are better than me at certain things. That’s natural and I'll go towards them for their support, but equally, this ship won’t sink if I'm not there. We are constantly developing people and to do that you have to give leadership opportunities.”

 It's a slightly leading question but when people see you in the dugout at QPR for example,  they automatically presume that you want to to go back to being a football Manager, but there's not actually where you see your future, is it?

 “No, being in charge of the youth team for their amazing FA Youth Cup run was  a happy accident. I was only there in the first place because Jordan Piper should have been in charge of the first game but he had first team duties so I stepped in and and I stayed doing it for the other games then”.

 Would you go back to Management?

 “You never say never  but I can only answer that by saying that right now I've got a great balance and the reason I stopped in the first place was because I had an imbalance! I enjoyed the challenge but also I had a new young family, new job and you have to get the priorities right.

 “I am so lucky to have had the privilege of being involved with football for so many years and in so many roles. From a player to a coach to a pastoral role  to Academy leadership,  on to football education and on  Boards, I've seen so many aspects, and I feel like I've got empathy for everybody involved in football. But first and foremost, I'm a fan”.

 One of those many roles is as a summariser on BBC Oxford; most fans will have heard Eddie’s take on United’s games

 “I'd go and pay to watch the games, right? So I may as well go and do the radio and have the same conversations I would be having with people to an audience! What I should actually do is probably engage with people a bit more when I do it, but I tend to just go to the game and then go home. I then get most of my interactions during the week, when I see the supporters and they say “I heard what you said :  why do you never see what I saw on the pitch”! Those are the means of further interactions, which I really enjoy.

 “Obviously I used to play for United and then worked there but I don’t work there any more and  have no ties, except for being a supporter, but if people hear me and it brings more attention to what we are doing here at City then that's a positive, a bi-product but hopefully a positive.”

 You are now not only developing young footballers you're developing young people…

“Absolutely, we put in high challenges but offer high support and therefore we're hopefully creating happy, healthy people who look back on their time here and appreciate what we have done for them”.

 He’s almost finished his lunch and I’m starving  but there’s one last question to ask. Eddie’s family are one of the most recognisable in Oxfordshire football and young son Benji is the latest Odhiambo to show signs of following in dad and his uncles’ footsteps. Is the next generation on the horizon?

 “He does the Tiny Tots football here which is another brilliant thing we do and means three and four years olds have a bit of fun and get involved for the first time. He has got the knee slide celebration going already! So he may become a goal scorer but in truth I just hope it’s something he enjoys.  I guess he'll see it first-hand on a daily basis because football is such a big thing for our family but I'm a massive advocate of being able to enjoy sport to an appropriate level.

 “I will always be a massive advocate of using sport to remove barriers and helping people with their  well-being; make sure that you can be competitive if you do any sport: I have always been absolutely ferociously competitive, but you have to understand people, and if you walk off a pitch, or a court or whatever sport you have been playing,  have a handshake, a hug and a beer afterwards.

 “Treat people right and sport can do amazing things. As someone said to me the other day, that’s what Oxford City is all about: good people doing good things…”