PeteG

5 hours ago, 100milesaway said:

Yes, how do they manage to look such a good team whilst losing their manager plus some of their best players in mid season

 

And they do it on average attendances of little more than 1,000 with 5 games being watched by less than 1,000. They look a very good team, score lots of goals ( 25 more than us ), and are on course for promotion. 

 

The people running that club on what must be a shoestring budget deserve a medal, and all the success in the world.

 

And have we played them 5 times in the last 2 seasons, and not managed a single win ?

We did beat them a few years back away when we had the likes of Mouche, Iacovetti and zeus de la paz etc. Ah, them were the days!!

On 1/2/2024 at 9:54 PM, yarddog73 said:

With a complete lack of any youngsters of our own I'd be more than happy to see a few of these players coming in for 4 games and having 6 goal involvements before going back to their parent club if it means we keep pushing on up.

 

We don't have a pot to piss in as it's all been pissed up the wall so if it means we have to play the loan roulette market than so be it, particularly if they come with the same attitude and desire as Stones.

Not got a pot to piss in? Thought Frank had made £5 million available around the turn of last year? Not even Darren and his mate Unsy have done that in already, surely?

14 minutes ago, Dave_Og said:

Not really up for debate but neither is it that Mellon's credentials are on a whole other level.

I wasn't debating it, someone decided to bring up a comment I made months ago as if I was completely wrong at the time.

1 hour ago, Dave_Og said:

Is this the same Askey that couldn't prevent Hartlepool coming down and now has them four points above the drop line? Or a different one?

And still would have been an upgrade on Unsworth!! Just how bad that appointment was is actually frightening given the squad and length of contracts we've been left with.

14 hours ago, mcfluff1985 said:

 

Table isn't finalised in August...

 

 

Yep, seems that way Pete

I'm glad you agree. However, they did hold on to Unsworth for too long and it turns out they was a decent manager we could attract in Mellon. Askey would have been an upgrade on Unsworth as would have been David Artell who I was wanting at the time who seems to have done a decent job for Grimsby in the last month.

4 minutes ago, Frankly Mr Shankly said:

 

I wouldn't rule out an offer being tabled for him, with the EFL transfer window due to open. I've no intel on this but Wigan need the cash and will probably want to sign an experienced striker in Januaryt to lead their relegation fight.

 

A player like him would clearly be an asset for us. A continuation of the form and we could be looking at selling for a considerable fee a couple of seasons down the line. As a club, I'l be surprised that this hasn't been considered already. It'd be a good investment.

The problem with any investment in Stones might be his knees. If he only trains once a week not sure how he would pass a medical, insurance might be an issue and therefore it might not be a great investment long term. However, I know nothing about his condition and whether it's a long term issue or not but didn't sound great according to MM

20 hours ago, BPAS said:

 

....unlike his time as a runner for Mo... when the the circus was in town....

1 hour ago, LightDN123 said:

Going out on loan doesn’t mean Stockport had the responsibility of paying his wages. 

No but equally it wouldn't have been someone's responsibility who didn't own the club at the time.

Also an element of bullshit about what Wellens was saying, he referred to Kallum Mantack who had gone out on loan to Stockport before Abdallah had taken over the club and was responsible for paying the wages.

1 minute ago, Dave_Og said:

'the pod' is just the opinion of a few people. No more than that.  

Not exactly, they are much closer to the club than most and therefore if these names have come from within the club it's a little different from someone on here or twitter just plucking some names from mid air and starting a rumour. I'd think what is said on the podcast carries a little more weight and influence.

15 minutes ago, yarddog73 said:

Mellon needs complete autonomy, if any lesson cam be learned from this it's that too many cooks will spoil the broth, it's clear as day the Unsworth/Thompson/Royle dynamic was completely useless, it would be interesting to know what part each of those men of the game played in the mess, my guess is they'd probably all blame each other.

 

It's probably worth pointing out that you will be lucky if 50% of your signings are a success, it's a tough gig but you can't help but feel we've not helped ourselves.

 

Even the great Joe Royle got a lot wrong but fortunately got a lot of the major ones right.

 

 

Spot on! Also the problem with too many involved is that it is easy for individuals to distance themselves when it goes wrong and not take responsibility. Much rather it be down to the manager, old fashioned maybe but what is required at our level imo.

7 minutes ago, oafc1955 said:

I really don’t know how you can come to that conclusion….After 4 years of absolute total regression with the Lemmies and Barry Owen I’d say we absolutely are!!!

I judge it by our performances on the pitch, in the last 2 seasons i've seen us have some of the worst results in the clubs history including the last 2 home games. I'd have thought we had bottomed out last season.

15 minutes ago, oafc1955 said:

So what do you suggest…not being patient?

They never said it would all come good under Unsworth, no one could predict that with any certainty.

What they did say was that we now had a proper management and recruitment set up and that we were finally heading in the right direction.

 

Sacking managers every few months had got us absolutely nowhere and we were right to give Unsworth a fair amount of time. It’s obvious now that we shouldn’t have given him as long as we did but that’s easy to say in hind sight!

 

It’s sad that it hasn’t worked out but that’s the nature of football. MM has a good track record and has had a few promotions. Hopefully, he can repeat it here but again there are no guarantees and it isn’t happening overnight!

 

We will have to be patient as we have no other choice!

Agree in the main, however, there is no evidence whatsoever we are currently heading in the right direction. I do think Mellon is the right man but as you say there are no guarantees.

Where have the rumours come from regarding these players that have been told they need to find a new club? A couple of the names are no surprise of course but others have featured heavily over the past few weeks or so and I can't imagine the club being very happy with these names being made public on the pod if there is any truth in them of course. As for the players being told to find a new club, if they are under contract they really don't, it's the club that needs to find them a club that's interested and even then, they are well within their rights to say no. Makes me laugh how the pod are now saying we need to be patient (again!) because the recruitment has been poor after previously telling everyone that it would all come good under 

Unsworth because everything was in place to make us successful including the recruitment department. With the exception of Mellon who I every faith in, what makes everyone so confident we will get the recruitment right this time around if the people handing out contracts are still in situ? Reminds me of Chelsea and United at a much lower level this. Scatter gun approach to recruiting players with no real thought on a system or style of play. Let's hope Mellon is given full control.

53 minutes ago, oafc1955 said:

MM has a huge job, I should imagine much bigger than he ever thought when he took the job.

 

We have to remember that these are the same players who were recruited by our previous regime and it’s blatantly obvious that they’re nowhere near good enough!

 

There has been next to no new manager bounce and apart from a little more desire early doors the performances have been awful!

 

Any thoughts of promotion at the moment is a pipe dream. We desperately need some quality additions or we could find ourselves marooned in this league  for a damn site longer!!

Only 7 of the 18 were recruited by the previous regime and 2 of them were goalscorers today. You could also argue the likes of Sheron, Fondop and McGahey have been 3 of the better performers recently which might say more about the new regimes recruitment given the money spent and the amount of resources they have had.

2 of the worst home results and performances in the clubs history in the last 2 games. Thanks Darren, Joe and Unsy.

3 hours ago, League one forever said:

If there’s one crumb of comfort it’s Micky’s post match presser,  it was exactly how I felt and what I was thinking on the game. He talks so much sense, and that in itself gives me a bit hope. 
 

As Micky and a few have said on here, the mentality of playing for Oldham has to be right. To not get a base level of performance yesterday is unacceptable. All the players are talented, but they lack the desire and self motivation to get the best out of themselves consistently. 
 

 

I think his presser was spot on, i've every confidence we've got the right guy in charge. I did wonder whether his remark (which he must have made 3 or 4 times) about look with your eyes was reference to all this data, stats baloney? I might be a bit of a dinosaur but i've always said, i'm not that interested in stats and this XG bollox, i can see exactly which players are good enough and putting in the required miles and effort by just watching them. Maybe MM is a bit more old school and his recruitment will be based on what he sees and what he knows about players characters etc.

1 minute ago, League one forever said:

Have you ever thought it’s exactly because he came so highly rated that people have questioned certain aspects of his game??

 

No player especially your highest earner is above critique. 
 

Mellon said in his post presser

 

I asked him to keep working and not get disappointed when things don’t come off, and tonight he did that.  

One man’s ‘professional standards’ are another man’s poor attitude. 
 

Last night it was noticeable that the arms didn’t go in the air once, and he was miles better player for it- having a hand in all four goals. .

 

 

I didn't say he was above critique. However, when people were having a pop at him he was still one of our best performers in my opinion. Expectations were high, rightly so but some of the things being levelled at him were out of order. We had all sorts of accusations going on mostly regarding his body language. We've got one of the best players in the league that could easily slot into a side 2 divisions higher, so let's just enjoy the fact he's wearing a blue shirt and get behind him. If he's firing on all cylinders we definitely won't be far away come May.

It was as plain as the nose on your face that Norwood was miles ahead of anything in the squad from day 1, I didn't need Saturday or last night to convince me. If he stays injury free he scores 25 goals this season minimum. I said when this bollocks all started a few weeks back that we should be building a team around him and was criticised for that opinion because of his age. Well, i stand by it, let him get us back in the EFL and we can worry about replacing him in 2 years time. 

Sounds like "Unsy" has done the majority of the budget in. 

5 hours ago, TheBigDog said:

Hogan left them after captaining the team to the National League title.  We came in with a very good offer - he told Stockport he wanted to leave and he signed for us when his contract at Stockport was up.

 

Reid was released so was surplus to requirements

 

 

I hardly think we came in with an offer Stockport couldn't match. Hogan was signed by Sheridan under Abdallah so I don't believe he was throwing massive amounts at him considering he was trying to sell the club. Hogan was surplus to requirements at Stockport and wasn't getting in the side.

1 hour ago, Roger Ritchie said:

 

He is our best option at the moment though (when fit). We need to manage him while we have no other options as he is not going to be fit enough to play 3 games a week. 
 

If we 'move on from him' we end up with Shelton and Sheron in midfield. A combination that has never won a game.

 

We can't move on until we have a better option. Which I am all for but we need a replacement or better options first.

 

Agree about letting him go in May as he isn't playing enough games. We need to a ball playing midfielder. Danny Boshell. 

We don't need to play Shelton, we've got Lundstram, Sheron, McGahey, Ward plus the wide men. Grant you we need someone else in who is good with the ball and dictate the tempo.

1 hour ago, TheBigDog said:

Who was the striker nicknamed ‘Jigsaw’? (*)

 

 

* goes to pieces in the box …
 

 

It was Stuart Barlow, he got the nickname whilst at Everton I believe.

Just now, oafc1955 said:

Frank doesn’t get involved in the football side.

He pays Norwood's wage. Let's face it, he wasn't dropping down to the National League to play for peanuts.

1 minute ago, oafc1955 said:

Thompson, Royle?

More likely Frank tbh