Latics and England

I never quite understand the whole add-on clause thing when we sell a youngster to one of the 'big 4'. If a player moves there and is a success, they will never leave. The only way we will get any more money out of it is if he doesn't quite make it and they offload him to Sunderland/Middlesborough/Portsmouth for a couple of mil. the Richards sell on clause is a fantastic one because I still feel that he will eventually decide that he wants to test himself at the highest level but there would have been absolutely no advantage in having a sell on clause for Irwin. We should always hold out for a higher up-front fee when a player goes to one of the big boys but put in a higher sell-on clause when they go elsewhere.

My head is hung in shame. I will not be there tomorrow. I'll still be on holiday next week too, thus missing what is normally one of my favourite away games. Sorry everybody. I should never grace this board again as I am clearly nothing but a glory hunter!

If it is a Scouse V Scum final I've got mixed feelings about it being in Moscow. My overriding view is that it is probably the ideal venue because it is the only country where the final could be played where they can genuinely restrict the number of fans travelling. If this game was in Barcelona or Amsterdam, or just about any other major city in Europe, there would be 50,000 plus travelling from each club which would lead to utter carnage. This isn't going to happen though, partly because of cost, but mainly due to the fact that you need a visa to get there. The two successful clubs will find out that they are in the final on 29/30 April and the final will take place three weeks later. The postal application process for a Russian visa takes 4 weeks. You can queue up in person at the embassy in London but they only accept about 200 applications a day in this way. It has been announced that the Russian embassy will be issuing visas through the successful clubs but I would assume that this will only apply to people who purchase tickets from the club so there will be almost no fans travelling who do not have tickets. On the other hand, each club is being given 21,000 tickets so that means there will still be over 40,000 fans over there. I can't imagine there being much trouble around the ground because you would have to have a death wish to mess with those Russian police and I don't think people would be that stupid. I think the major issue is the fans staying in the big hotels, in particular the Cosmos which has over 5,000 rooms. This is where most will stay and it will not be safe for them to leave the hotel at night (or probably in the day) as the local thugs will be targetting people as they leave. This means that on the Tuesday and Wednesday night there will probably be the best part of 10,000 fans in there in the hotel bars. How on earth that can be policed, I just don't know.

If anyone is going to Altinkum this year, don't forget your gaffer tape

I agree with you in principle about matchday prices but the problem is that if you charge £300 for a season ticket (£13 a match) and £14 or £15 on a matchday, very few people will bother buying season tickets and the fact is that we need as much of the money up front as possible to allow us to compete in the transfer market over the Summer. One idea which would be hugely unpopular amongst the fans but could possibly help us add a few on the gate would be to offer reduced admission prices if you present a season ticket for another club. I know people would have a problem with letting City and United fans in cheaper than our own fans but at least if they could get in for a tenner they might come a few times a year. I know that if Dale would let me in for a tenner, I would go there from time to time when we haven't got a game.

There's been that many threads on this, I thought we should have a poll. I have come up with what appear to be the most popular suggestions. Remember: This is how much you think Latics should charge rather than how much you would like to pay.

There are two fundamental flaws in this theory. One, your assumption that selling twice as many season tickets at half the price leads to the same amount of revenue ignores the impact on pay on the day fans. I would strongly argue that the first 2,000 additional season tickets we sell would be at the expense of 1,500 pay on the day fans (a loss of £690k of matchday income being partly offset by an additional £300k of season ticket sales) Two, you are assuming that there are a large number of people who do not go to BP based on cost alone. If the reason someone doesn't go is anything other than price, a reduction in price will not lead to them attending games. Personally I have doubts that there are too many people who don't go because of the price. I am not saying that there aren't quite a few but I don't believe it is in the thousands. Price may be A reason for some people but not THE reason.

That is a completely different argument. I agree that a pay on the day price of £20 is excessive for this level of football but we are talking about season ticket prices and I do not accept that £13 a game is over the top.

I know that I'm going to get slated for this, but here goes. I do not understand why there are so many people in favour of these schemes. The Port Vale scheme is utter madness. If they sell 5,000 season tickets at £183 they are bringing in revenue of well under a million quid with the liklihood of no matchday revenue apart from the away fans. I know that people will go on about pies and programmes etc but realistically, the margin on these is minimal. If Port Vale sold season tickets for £300 they would probably sell 2,500, giving them revenue of a couple of hundred grand less but with added revenue each match (probably an extra thousand punters at £20 a throw). The atmosphere created by five thousand fans is not going to be that much better than with three and a half or four thousand. The club will have significantly less revenue over the season and so will be significantly less competitive in the transfer market. I want to watch a decent Latics team and appreciate that I have to pay a reasonable price for that to be the case. Our season tickets will be about £300 this time round, thus costing me £13 a game. That is not an excessive price in my opinion. I appreciate that there will be people who can't afford £300 up front but that is the way of the world and there will also be people who cannot afford £183. Give me a team challenging for promotion next season at £13 a game over a team battling to stay up at £8 a game.

To be fair, there probably were only two minutes of highlights from the game on Wednesday and that must have included showing the penalty three or four times over.

For one of the most bizarre songs, you can't beat "And number one, is Frankie Bunn". It's a popular one with John Part as well!!!

Following on from the question from DrLatics, how many of us do watch England? Please choose as many answers is as applicable.

"Songs sung at BP"? Surely this must be an error. Songs sung at away games, maybe! OWTB cannot be beaten when there are a large number singing. Carlisle last season was the best I've ever heard it. No Ney Never is impressive when we go through the whole rendition. "Outsung by 200 fans!" A one off at Forest this season but sounded superb

My understanding is that even non-contracted players are not free agents if they were contracted at the close of the transfer window. This is to prevent the manipulation of the transfer window system. I may be wrong (it certainly wouldn't be the first time). It will give us a discussion point for the trip down tomorrow.

I don't quite get the fact that the administrators have announced that all contracts have been breached and the players are free to leave. The transfer window prevents them leaving anyway. All players who were under contract on 31 January are bound by the rules of the transfer window and so cannot sign for any other club. Obviously they can still go out on (emergency) loan but this was always the case and so I didn't see any point in the statement by the administrators.

Matty Gilks. Not featuring at norwich and might fancy some time back up here with his friends and family

How ever many they bring, we should applaud every one of them. They are what football is all about in the same way that I have the utmost respect for all our fans who went down there on a Tuesday night. Don't be amazed at how few they bring, be impressed at every one who comes.

Daddy's boy - Any regrets?

An answer which allowed outof the blue to take off his tin hat I feel, SeasideLatic Everytone is entitled to their own opinion. It is just a shame that yours is wrong If Latics went bang, I think that would be the time to give up this sport that ruins my weekends on a regular basis... although I'd still follow England so I would be able to satisfy my sado-machistic urges

Sorry, I can't agree He's going to score anyway so I think we should be giving it to him with both barrels from the start. I'd love to think that we could get a decent crowd on Saturday (although much depends on tonight's result) and we can create an atmosphere that makes both Moores feel very unwelcome. I'll probably get shot down for this view but in my opinion we were well and truely screwed by the pair of them in January and we shouldn't forget that.

My prediction: Hallworth Barlow Marshall Duxbury Holden Sheridan Sheridan Ritchie Philiskirk Bunn My second prediction: Outrage at no Eyres

No names, no pack drill

It was a genuinely shocking game of football but I don't know how people can describe it as the worst game they have ever seen. It was a better game than the Chelsea v Liverpool game a few weeks back. It was worth sitting through it for the ultimate moment of comedy that was the goal. Not the greatest mistake Kenny's ever made but a fantastic end to an awful night!

The Vine is your best bet. Not the greatest pub in the world but always fill of Latics fans. Also, if you are hungry, go to the Chinese take away just round the corner from the Vine and order sausage chips and gravy. It is genuinely the greatest sausage chips and gravy in the world. It looks expensive when you see it on the menu but I promise that you won't be disappointed!

Gutting news. All the best Ernie, a true fighter who now faces the ultimate fight. I wholeheartedly back Peanuts' idea for a fundraising t-shirt - "Ernie for England"