PartTimeLatic

He put his brother in charge of all footballing matters and, despite repeated failings in the transfer window, never ever got rid of him. He brought in swathes of random French third/fourth tier players with the hopes of flipping them for profit because their agents were his mates or potentially even himself, so there was little to no scouting done on the quality of these players. He stuck Queensy Menig on £15k per week or something ridiculous in League One. He went into the dressing room on multiple occasions to berate players, completely undermining any manager in place at the time. He stuck his mate, Selim, in charge of the club for two months. He repeatedly lied to fans, promising five year plans and detailed strategies of things he would change at the club and never delivered. He was at the club for four and a half years and hired 11 managers in that time, so either his recruitment process was shite or his patience was shite. He kept Barry Owen employed for the majority of his time at the club, despite Owen being at the scene of the crime for the previous regime's disastrous end. The Abdallah timeline is here for you to remind yourself. I do genuinely believe that he bought a club that was in a far worse condition than he anticipated when he took over, which was probably partially due to a lack of due diligence on his part but also due to the previous owners hiding certain things to ensure a sale could happen. But Abdallah wasn't just some unfortunate guy who took over a mess that nobody could make work - he was a fucking idiot who was as instrumental in Oldham's decline into the National League as anybody else, perhaps more so in many ways. Frank has taken the club over in a far worse state, because it's got both the damage of the pre-Abdallah era and also the Abdallah era itself to repair, and has shown himself to be a competent businessman by making Oldham a sustainable business in the space of two years. Fans have returned in droves because an owner they like and respect, a man from the local area who loves Oldham, in charge, who we can see demonstrably has a long term vision of how to keep the club afloat. Abdallah had the club on the brink of insolvency on multiple occasions.

Definitely agree that the way we've recruited has been pretty haphazard and without a coherent plan (Norwood in particular was very much a "he's available" signing rather than one we set out to get by all accounts). A DoF would be great but (and I genuinely don't know this, so curious) how many clubs at National League level have a DoF? Regardless, Oldham aren't scared of using their pull and flaunting their size. We're getting League One players in regularly, even Conlon coming in January, we're just getting ones that turn to shit the moment they step foot on the BP pitch.

This is a baffling assessment of Abdallah's reign.

We've tried that, half the recruitment this season has come from League One or League Two. We flaunted our size/budget and look where it's got us.

It's so easy to get fans to like you. Genuinely so simple, I don't know why there isn't a single player in the current squad who's actually doing anything. Social media makes it a piece of piss to write a few tweets acknowledging support and saying how buzzing you are to be at Oldham and immediately a good chunk of the fanbase thinks you're a good lad and wants you to do well, so will give you more time/patience than others. Instead there's a whole squad of players who say or do very little outside of their contractual club duties, or in some cases not even that (cough, Norwood, cough). The manager is an odd one as fans loved Sheridan for saying it as it is and not sugarcoating it when it's shit, which is what Mellon is doing and he's being called negative. But you can see that fan criticism is clearly getting to him, particularly if you sit in the Main Stand.

Few things about the pod that I personally found a bit grating (I largely agreed on the keep/sell except for Norwood who's a nailed on get rid in my opinion): 1. The idea that fans booing players is totally unhelpful and that fans need to be more constructive - how can this ever be possible? In the case of Norwood, for example, who's scored 7 goals since November and none in open play since December, booing him off is the only possible way fans can voice their dissatisfaction with a player who's on £5k per week being shite for 6 months. How can we "constructively" give this feedback? The guy won't hang around the stadium after the 90 minutes are up long enough for any of us to sit him down and constructively tell him where his pressing was bad and where he can improve. Unfortunately our only choices are booing or sit there in silence and let them get away with it. I disagree with the fans who shouted personal abuse from the Main Stand Upper after he'd sat on his bench, but I've no problem with the crowd at large making their feelings known by booing him off the pitch. 2. The ending of the pod where Andy says that "people have died, that's a bit more important than football isn't it?" Well you can do this for literally anything. I'm afraid that the simple fact that humans do not live forever isn't enough to make me not furious about how the season has totally fizzled out for the last three months. I completely buy the fact that the club is no longer in danger of liquidation and the Rothwells have got a stable club with players who are paid on time, but I'm not going to sit around in the National League for years just being thankful that Oldham exist, which is the bare minimum for any football club. Existing was only an achievement under the Lemsagams, under the Rothwells it should be taken as a given. Other than that, great pod and thanks for sticking out another horrendously underwhelming season and discussing it every single week. It's important for the fans to have something like this and the phone in.

The complete lack of acknowledgement for the season/fans from virtually all of the players after yesterday speaks volumes. As you say in another comment, I don't blame them for not giving any love back to fans who are quick to turn on them, but then I also don't see how players expect any fanbase to be happy clappy when their performances are as routinely bad as this. There are some players who were bang average in recent years but fans liked them because they tried a bit off the pitch. Alex Reid, pre-Christmas-gate, interacted with fans quite a bit. Go as far back as Bahamboula. Just a few bits of being nice to fans after games and putting some effort in gives you a lot of leeway when your performances aren't great and buys patience with the fans. The fact the club/squad just don't address it despite acknowledging that it's a problem is crazy. This is why fans are quick to dislike the players, they don't give them anything to like or get attached to.