josh_latics

I am thankful and grateful for Simon Corney for saving our club. I hate him now for putting us through this, and forcing people to make a decision that no football fan should have to make.

Corney says a deal is 80% done. http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/127829/oldham-athletic-owner-says-ched-evans-deserves-second-chance

Have you factored in the 200 members of the press who have been crawling up and down Sheepfoot Lane all week?

The General!

But a jury, and the Court of Appeal have deemed him a :censored:ing rapist. He's a rapist up until any point that a court of law changes that.

The rumours this evening that his father-in-law is involved are sickening. It's so bent it's unbelievable. How can a bunch of fairly successful businessmen, who are football men, remotely believe that this is a good idea for the club.

It's like Krakow round here, so many polls...

Mail: Matt Lawton ‏@Matt_Lawton_DM 3m3 minutes ago No statement from PFA/Oldham/Evans coming today now

I think George is the 3rd or 4th strongest on it....

I have a pit in my stomach...

Followed by: Steve Scott ‏@stevescott_itv 4m4 minutes ago No clues as to content but why would PFA be involved in club statement if Evans wasn't signing?

I did edit mine, but you may have missed it. If we end up signing Ched or not, this week has been a disaster from a reputation point of view, whichever way you look at it. We looked nailed on to signing him, with an alleged press conference booked. We then got the yips and cancelled it, and have been in a board room for at least two days, with no communication with the fans. Owen made a statement a few months ago saying he spoke to all fans when we signed Hughes to get their opinion (which noone remembers) and he hasn't done this time. Plus we made a statement in December saying we weren't touching him with a barge pole. The situation has been handled horrifically by the board.

There is a significant minority (I'd take a stab at a quarter to a third, maybe higher) who would be happy with Ched signing. However, I'm fairly certain 100% of OAFC fans are outraged at how this week has been handled and developed.

Nothing silly. Peaceful, outside the club entrance. Banners, flags etc welcome. I'd worry that we'd get swamped by lots of people unrelated to the club who just want to come and make some noise and make trouble. The second an organised protest is organised, the Mail, BBC etc will all run stories, and Christ knows how many will show. The protest from us (at least the majority) is against Owen and the Board, not Evans directly.

If we don't already have a contract with him, what I think would be the best way out of it with saving a modicum of the club's dignity, would be offer him a week's trial and training. Then we can say he's not fit and we don't want him. It saves us (a little) bit of face, I think. Either way, it's a horrendous football decision if we sign him without seeing him train or be in a reserve game, he literally hasn't played for years.

From the Chron: "There is a big boost for manager Johnson ahead of the Rovers clash with the news that much-missed captain Liam Kelly suffered no ill-effects after taking part in a full training session yesterday." A bright spark in a pretty :censored:ty week.

More PR gold from the club: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialOAFC/posts/914570355242368

http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/10/oldham-athletic-news/87373/happy-returns to be fair, the chron suggests he does. My apologies!

I don't think we do have an option - http://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk/news/article/20140801-jonathan-forte-joins-oldham-athletic-1796919.aspx And we shouldn't get rid. He's our top scorer, who's had a mini-drought (possibly Evans related, but that's speculation and probably best saved for a different thread). I think he's best out wide left, I know others think different, and playing a diamond means we can't have him there. But we should play a formation that gets the best out of our players, which for me would be Forte wide left. Especially at home, having him through the middle won't work. Teams have worked out since Coventry that if they sit deep, his pace is useless and they can deal with him if he's in front of them.

I'm really on the fence at the moment. I think if he signed without apologising and deleting that rancid website of his, seeing him holding up a Latics shirt with Blatter and Corney either side of him and the look of desperation on LJ's face would do it for me. But if he signed, gave a press conference and showed some :censored:ing remorse for his despicable crime and looked to make some reparations in the community and actually rehabilitate himself, I'd have some more sympathy for the club's decision.

"MERGOMATIC THREAD ACTIVE" huh?

Can't understand why it's taking so long, I have an inkling we're going to get him, we're u-turning our original u-turn. Already dreading the "she said no" chants at every away game, the match reports that start "ex-convict Ched Evans grabbed his first goal today."

He seemed resigned to it. Corney and Owen aren't football people, they're not Directors of Football. LJ should be in charge of transfers, not these two.

I think all of the loanees have gone back, ie Jabo, Johnson and Tidser

Putting on the moral stuff to one side (which we shouldn't) I can't believe that people still want Evans even if Lee Johnson doesn't. This only ends badly.