AS FIROZ Kassam cleared his desk and said his farewells at Oxford United, he may well have marvelled at the stark contrast in his arrival and departure from the club.

Understandably hailed as a hero by fans when he first took over at United in summer 1999, the multi-millionaire is now viewed as more of a villain by supporters.

But at the time of his taking over the club, the new stadium was only half built, the club was £18m in debt and had just been relegated to the second division.

It was a club in need of saving and Mr Kassam was viewed by fans as that much-needed saviour.

He immediately set about the task of stabilising United's finances and, after two years of legal problems with the building of the new stadium, he finally delivered the long-awaited new home in 2001.

It was this kind of good news the fans wanted to focus on, after seeing their side relegated to the bottom tier of English league football at the end of the 2000/2001 season.

For Mr Kassam, there was always one chink in his armour, though his obvious lack of football know-how. The cracks started to show just a few years into his tenure.

Trevor Lambert, a life-long fan and chairman of supporters' trust OxVox, said: "Things started to go wrong when Mr Kassam realised football was not like any of his other businesses. He had to make wise choices of managers and give them the support and the players they needed to succeed.

"This might mean looking to the mid-term rather than looking for instant success. But if a manager did not produce the goods almost instantly, there was a change, and there were just too many changes.

"Given the revenue and size of support the club enjoys, the club should have done a lot better than it did under Kassam."

Fans felt, particularly during the 2002/2003 season when the club was flying high in the third division, Mr Kassam was unwilling to build on the team's successes when a little more investment could have gone a long way.

As United plummeted, resentment amongst the fans grew notably recently as they saw him set up a deal to take over Alexandra Palace in London and plan to run a casino here in Oxford culminating in last week's invasion of the stadium.

In his farewell statement yesterdaymar22, Mr Kassam referred to some fans having short memories, hinting at their ingratitude for his help in the late 1990s.

But Mr Lambert said: "You can't go on forever appreciating what happened all those years ago. Yes, he did manage the move to the new stadium, but he presided over failure on the football field after that. It always seemed to us as fans that, of all the businesses Mr Kassam had, Oxford United was at the bottom of his in-tray.

"He never had 100 per cent of his attention on Oxford United at any one time. There was always a bigger project somewhere else." Despite Mr Kassam's best efforts, including bringing in Argentine World Cup star Ramon Diaz and a host of his backroom staff in late 2004, the results were never forthcoming.

And so managers came and went with dizzying speed a total of eight were shown the door during his seven-year reign. Now his time has come.