UpTheLatics

First win in six to arrest the slide down the league. Little else comes to mind and certainly nowt worth stating.

I have been open with my assessment of the Bunn appointment and have not changed my mind much, other than to be content a reasonable start to the season - that is not a judgement on the style or level of performance, but squarely the points total - but directly questioning Bunn's suitability 13 games into a season seems to me to contribute to the dire running of our town's football club. I do not see how removing Bunn from the touchline would benefit us as this fails to deal with the real problems with the club. 

Should we win the game in hand, we would rise to 11th place. Now, prior to the sacking of Wellens I considered a promotion challenge to be the natural expectation, however Lemsagam's  amateurish approach, the lacklustre appointment of Bunn and quality of the subsequent player signings - both owner and manager - left me expecting not much more than mid-table. I think we are where we both ought and deserve to be.

Reality, ladies and gentleman, doesn't half stick in the craw. 

On 10/6/2018 at 9:52 AM, kowenicki said:

4000 fans paying 20 per week for 52 weeks.  As I said, naive.  Have you seen the bitching that goes on about season ticket prices here... which actually work out at less than half this amount spread over a calendar year!

 

It wouldnt happen and its its not enough anyway. 

 

Our 4000 fans that can just about be arsed turning up every OTHER week during the season includes a hell of a lot of kids and pensioners.  

 

This thread is ludicrous. 

 

 

Do you know why ideas like this fail to gather momentum? It's because of thick-headed people like you. If it isn't to the way you see it, it is wrong, naive or ludicrous. A few have mentioned squabbles and factions and you'd be a figurehead for them, spouting your ignorance. Now, putting aside your lacklustre contribution, a few have welcomed the idea and I do too. 

Are we realistically going to become a supporter-owned club in the next decade? I very much doubt it, but that is not to say we cannot increase our influence. Even to have a 20-30% stake in the club would give the supporters a voice we believe has been hoarse for far too long. It would allow us access to every bit of detail and may have brought about the end of Simon Corney's era a few years before the club was sold to this pretender.

I'd like us to go another way and strive for some individualism; the game - both on and off field - has become bland and banal and I'd like us to have supporters involved with every aspect of the club and to encourage the wider town to get involved, from catering to advertising local businesses.

These things will never occur until a hardcore group is willing to start with the basics. Organise a raw committee - just to explore ideas - and go from there.

Just exclude Kowenicki from any involvement. That is my only factionalism. 

On 8/21/2018 at 5:07 PM, Andy-latic said:

Have a read of the comments under the clubs tweet regarding Celebrating Eid. It’s no wonder that we have so few Muslim supporters. Unnecessary racist remarks from several racist dick’ed fans.

Assuming I'm reading all of the stuff you're referring to, where are the racist remarks?

1 hour ago, BP1960 said:

 

Preston fans thought he gave their defenders a torrid time.

That was championship, this is division 2.

FB must think he's what we need, so why not go along with that?

 

Because we're entitled to judge a player who has been about it and has barely played the game since he came through at City? I wish the lad, like all of the other new faces, all the very best. Am I expecting much?  No.

And it's fine to say that, you know?

19 hours ago, kowenicki said:

 

Spare me your virtue.  I’m talking about a few footballers mouthing off like they are something special. These guys are acting in an entitled and arrogant way but are mostly a bit thick. 

 

For the avoidance of doubt...I repeat... it’s not right to miss paying wages. FFS!    

The irony is that you're holding average footballers some earning a bit over the average UK salary to a different standard to your common man and woman and considering you ultimately help pay those wages, it is in your interest to know if the club is being handled correctly and tells me you are interested when this sort of stuff comes out (as you should be).

Demanding people shut their mouths, restricting information and controlling criticism. There is a regime in't Far East you'd revel in.

22 hours ago, kowenicki said:

 

Ffs... another one who can’t comprehend.

 

People are not defending late wages. They are merely saying that you do not go on social media bitching and crying like a baby about it.  Is that clear?  It’s not hard to distinguish between the two things. 

And you're the one to determine what anybody, anywhere can say on social media? Who gave you that right?

I'm curious - would you support a player-lead strike over the failure to pay wages that aren't much higher than the average man and woman in Oldham?

Considering a lot of people's lives are connected to the football, from office staff, players right through to the supporters we ought to know when things aren't working. If you're not eager to know if the club is being poorly ran it says more about you then owt else.

27 minutes ago, kowenicki said:

Wow. Been a very positive pre season so far. 

 

 

NB. I don’t expect Keegan or his disciples here to comment on this. 

Shut up.

6 minutes ago, the_mighty_bosh said:

Promising that he's recently been a regular in the Blackpool side that won promotion two seasons ago.

 

Not the "wow" signing that Baxter is, but the most convincing signing that we've made so far this summer imo.

Agree with this entirely. 

This division has little quality; those that go up tend to have dependable players. There is room for brave football, but putting together a squad of foreign-born players, most of whom have not played in England, has yet to work. A brief assessment of League Two champions shows this. 

This is a good, Bunn-sought signing.

2 hours ago, Smiler13 said:

If you believe this shit you will all believe anything . Just ask yourselves why is the present management team so happy and the current players working so hard in such a happy atmosphere? It doesn’t add up or make any sense.

2 hours ago, mikeroyboy said:

Whatever he's said and wherever he's said it, his intentions are to demoralise as many people as possible in an act pique. He will almost certainly now feel smugly better in himself.

 

It is not a 'heads up' as to what is going on. Unless Lemsagam is doing something illegal nothing can be done to change his direction of how he runs the club, other than his own self preservational instinct. Namely, learning from his mistakes.

 

Many wanted Corney out at any cost and many more (including me) were ready for a change.

 

Not a single one of us had a clue of who or why someone would want to invest in our club.

 

It is a long time since someone was running our club out of love and long term affection - like a fan. Some clubs are lucky or fortunate in this respect. Good luck to them.

We have Mr Lemsagam who is now going too oversee our first season in 'L2' for 40 year's or so.

 

With no other option we should wait to see how it goes.

 

Or maybe Craig Davies can cheer us up, now he has done wonders for his own emotions.

 

At some point, people, you need to face reality otherwise you'll awake and we'll be playing football in the non-league. If anybody ever brings you down for encouraging our teams then they're worth rebutting, but where is your critique?

5 hours ago, Crusoe said:

 

Not sure why you feel the need to resort to insults. I challenged the conclusions you were drawing - or asking others to draw - nothing more. Yes, I drew a silly parallel - and acknowledged that it was.

 

Am I happy with the signing? Ambivalent at best. But I'm not going to start worrying about cliques and Lemsagam calling the shots based on the first signing. If the next few are of the same calibre, sure, let's get concerned. Given how little some of last season's overseas contingent played he doesn't seem to be bullying managers into team selections, nor does he seem reluctant to let them go.

 

Even if he is using the club as a shop window for overseas players (it's a possibility, sure) it's in his own interest to have the best players and the highest league position, to get the most attention and highest prices.

 

Give it a week or two and then I'll worry if I have to.

Aye, you're right. I do apologise. I'm just taken aback by what we're willing to accept just because a bloke who is supposed to be worth summat comes on the scene.

On 05/07/2018 at 11:09 PM, Dave_Og said:

What are the actual French Lads going to do, form a non-English clique with the Dutch Curacoans? What a load of bollocks. 

Do you walk around with your eyes closed?

On 05/07/2018 at 11:20 PM, Crusoe said:

 

1. I don't know. Do you? Or just jumping to conclusions?

 

2. Why is a clique inevitable? They're not from the same country or league. And even if some do hang around together, why does that necessarily mean festering and draining "the notion of a team"? Again, jumping to conclusions. 

 

3. Not sure what the relevance is. Not many clubs to compare against, not sure yet what our squad or starting XI will look like this season. Too early to judge whether there's a meaningful comparison. And it's arguably nonsensical to suggest that nationality (or mixtures of them) is linked to success. Taken to a silly extreme, someone could argue that the logic would mean clubs with multinational squads will get fare worse than all-British squads. Better let the Premier League clubs know, they'll be shitting themselves. 

I asked questions mate. Despite having my views, you usually ask questions and submit a conclusion at the end. if you read again and engage that brain of yours, you'd see I didn't do that. Yes, I believe we could turn into the very model that never works in the lower leagues, but I haven't said for certain we have. If anybody wants to compare what I've said to the premier league, well, of course they're welcome, but I call you morons for doing so. This is League Two. Ability, well-funded support structures and intense interest is lacking.

We're that desperate for success, we're willing to lap up the last 12 month without an ounce of scrutiny. The first signing under Bunn is a French player from the doldrums and eyebrows remain in place. Incredible.

It is somewhat telling that the first player to be signed under Bunn is a French lad from an obscure club in France and it is obvious Bunn is allowing Lesmagam to control what happens on the pitch. 

To ask that supporters give this lad a chance is fine by me, but I ask those supporters to use their own imagination and answer the following question:

1. How many of the foreign-born players that have been signed in the last 12 months can speak English?

2. Is it not likely that these players will inevitably form a clique, one which will fester and ultimately drain the notion of a team? In my view, this is partly what caused last season to descend into a disaster.

3. How many League Two champions in recent years have possessed as many foreign-born, non-English speaking players as are employed by our club?

I am afraid that models like this have been tried and invariably fail.

9 hours ago, singe said:

Hi Richie.....

 

AL may  prove dodgy, but we simply cannot know. We may go down again. We cannot know.

In the para you argue there is no evidence to prove it was RW, but there is plenty of circumstantial ( as well as rumour) , he has the most to benefit from the article. Some of the accusations cover Corney's time.

In the second para you condemn AL despite"not a scintilla of evidence" to back up the claims.

Bunn & Rhodes are untried, yes, I said the same, but questionable and lacking experience? No way. Both have significant experience two leagues higher, and decades in the game.

Why?

You might want to review some of my posts concerning Wellens. I hold him responsible for relegation and was disgusted by his reaction at full-time at Northampton and his failure to address the supporters until his statement via the LMA.

Your next point is a contradiction. You're calling me out for saying there is no evidence Wellens was parroting to the press, yet then state there are rumours. That makes no sense mate. There are too many people on this forum obsessed with this, yet nobody has provided any evidence and I think it's best you get over it and look to this season. I'd be consistent and lambast Wellens if it was true, but there is a difference between wanting summat to be true so much that you hold to it regardless or you await to be shown evidence. I saw Wellens lose control of his players, provide no leadership, fail to motivate. I then watched him leave the field at full-time at Northampton seconds after entering it. I called for his immediate sacking. 

My charges against Lemsagam can be verified on the bloody club website for Christ's sake! 

Bunn and Rhodes are questionable in the sense that they have zero experience in management and both in their mid-50s.

Facts. Appreciate them.

2 minutes ago, archiecat said:

Nah, sorry but Wellens version doesn't include his many shortcomings.

I will agree that Lemsagam strikes me as rather dodge but i feel your assessment of Bunn and Rhodes as " two very questionable individuals" is well wide of the mark!

They must have over 70 years experience of playing and coaching between them and without checking, i would dare to say all at a higher level than we are now.

 

As a trade union representative, I don't enter a meeting and slay the member. The LMA is the football staff's union and they most probably wrote that for him. As for Bunn and Rhodes, I admire both of them and will be shouting them on all the way, but do you know find it strange that both are in their mid-50s and haven't an ounce of managerial experience? You'd have to search the history books for summat similar.

I don't begrudge Wellens the opportunity to offer his interpretation of events and It effectively draws the whole sorry thing to an evens conclusion. There is not a scintilla of evidence that Wellens was whispering to the press and although his deserves his share of criticism for his management that led to relegation, such baseless accusations are rather unfair.

To repeat what a few others have said, we now have to face what is in front of us. We have to contend with an unknown individual who, if the reports in the newspapers are to be believed (I've yet to hear or read a convincing rebuttal to the details), has resorted to the brutal trigger in his attempt to establish full control of a club devoid of morale and strategic planning. In my view, a convincing case for successive relegations can be made; we don't know how Lemsagam plans to sensibly finance a return to division three football, he is given to dictation, he is using the squad as a route way for poor players from the continent, he's appointed two very questionable individuals who are all smiles and lacking experience in the dugout and there is nobody left in the club to tell him to stop.

I speak as I see things and thus far it doesn't look promising. 

23 hours ago, Kusunga_Is_God said:

Don’t say that! 

Such profanities are no longer welcome it seems.

1 minute ago, maddog said:

 

I’ve got more than 2 new grounds (8) for the first time in years and can make all but Lincoln away (Tuesday night). I’m ecstatic!

I'm waiting for summat to spark a bit of excitement.

Mansfield and Lincoln away on Tuesday, Notts County and Lincoln at home on a Tuesday. Nice way of ruining 1,000-plus away followings.

I couldn't be less enthused by all this.

I can't help thinking this looks summat to be seen at a school reunion. 

29 minutes ago, kowenicki said:

 

Nah. I don’t bother going in much these days, I have people that do that for me.  Nice to see you resorting to insults. Expected. 

What insult?

23 minutes ago, kowenicki said:

 

I refer you to the post you are quoting.  Bore off. 

I bet you're the office gimp, running round being super positive whilst the workforce comprehend the redundancy letters.

Take a day off, read what I said and stop being the town's worst contradiction. Cry baby.

4 hours ago, kowenicki said:

 

Speculation.   Another cry baby neg.  It is sooo easy to be a snide and negative.  It also speaks volumes about him and you.  What a tragic and bitter existence.

What a fantastically idiotic thing to say.

If you allow emotion, instead of reason and logic, to dictate your response to any situation in life you will be stung quite regular. It is ludicrous and incredibly ignorant to expect supporters - some of whom have experienced bitter disappointed for nearly 30 years - to bounce along like a giddy three-year old. If you haven't by now questioned the club's conduct in most areas of its operation, using your money to do so, then that is your problem. Now, I know you don't like owt to be shown to the light of question but I'm going to do so regardless.

The appointment of Frankie Bunn is somewhat disappointing. I wish the man - a good man and former player - all the best and I will attend games wanting him to succeed, but it is news fit to invoke puzzlement. Firstly, why has it taken Bunn so long to move into management? At 55, that goes against the grain of most managers taking their first job. Secondly, why has he been given a one-year contract? It does not demonstrate confidence and commitment. There is not a doubt in my mind that Bunn will be sacked after 12-15 games if we are not winning because Lemsagam clearly possesses a knack for making decisions bordering on the insane . It is understandable to ask for stability but it is painful to read so many accepting a season of nothingness. 

As an aside, for those using the hideous phrase "manage expectations" raise your own and avoid it. I don't know what makes me angrier: reading that on numerous occasions or having to click into the League Two section on the BBC website to discover the Bunn news.

6 minutes ago, Ryan said:

Alan Nixon says it's definitely Bunn. 1/6 on SkyBet. 

 

Joke of an appointment. Sick to death of us going for the cheap option.

Knowing the pillock running the place. it's quite possible Bunn is on a fortune.

2 minutes ago, HarryBosch said:

 

He's been linked with the job more times than that and therein lies your problem... 

True, but there is a monumental difference between getting linked, more or less always by redtops and bookies, and getting an interview for the job. My point is only last year did we finally get confirmation Scholes was interested.

I take your point, though.