Oxford United owner Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth set for first meeting with Firoz Kassam

Oxford United’s owner, known as Tiger, has only spoken with the club’s landlord by telephone since buying the controlling stake in February.

Their connection is arguably the most important of any when it comes to the U’s chances of success.

Supporters’ trust OxVox have helped to broker the meeting and Tiger intends to make the 11,000-mile round trip from Thailand once he obtains the necessary paperwork.

“(It will be) very soon,” he said.

“I’m just waiting to get my visa done and then I will be going to Monaco.

“I want to show my respect by going to meet him over there.

“The first thing is to build a relationship. I think we have a lot of things to talk about.”

A succession of Thanakarnjanasuth’s predecessors have been unable to make much headway with their landlord.

Progress has stalled in recent months with United taking the stadium company Firoka, which is owned by Kassam, to arbitration over the service charge.

The latest accounts showed an outstanding figure of £521,418 was being disputed and the process, which is still ongoing, is likely to be on the agenda.

Thanakarnjanasuth was in the UK over the weekend to watch United beat Rochdale to preserve their status in Sky Bet League One.

The Thai businessman admitted there were moments of concern earlier in the run-in.

But he has been impressed with the job done by Karl Robinson and is planning to oversee a busy summer.

He said: “I was a bit worried, but I knew we would be OK because you could see how well they were playing.

“Next season we’re going to build a whole new strong team.

“We’re going to sign more than ten players.

“I think he (Robinson) did a good job so far and you can see a lot of a difference even from the same players in the last five or six games.”

Robinson emerged from a recruitment meeting on Thursday believing he and the owner were in sync.

“We are, 100 per cent,” he said.

“He was very good in the meeting, he’s not said ‘no’ yet.”