ghostofcecere

So if you need a shit in the North Stand, what do you do now?

14 minutes ago, al_bro said:

I think AL is so stubborn the last people he would sell to would be the FLG. He would rather see the club go into admin. At that point the FLG could take over if they have the money, but we will be in a very sorry state by then.

These are exactly my thoughts, but I’m starting to think it’s the only option

Vera is absolutely shite

1 hour ago, Lags said:

 

Really Ryan?, even Georgie Best was sent to train with the kids!!

 

It's been a tactic employed to get rid of players since year dot.

By the manager though, not the owner/chairman.

only the manager or head coach as we have it now should be involved in team affairs.

2 hours ago, Frankies6 said:

Latics supporters for over 30 years ..i guess we all have that i common on here dont we ? .. love OWTB.. been on here for a good few years ive just never got involved with any debates until now ,hope you dont mind my input every now and then ?

So how do you plan to make a loss making business like Latics make money then?

Good signing this.

Making the rather large assumption that the Lemmy’s have signed the foreign lads, and Barry the English lads, you have to say Barry has done by far the better job.

1 hour ago, yarddog73 said:

He wouldn't get away with not paying rent at the AJ Bell.....

This... and I dare say the cost of renting BP is cheaper than he’d have to pay there 

1. Plymouth

2. Swindon

3. Bradford

----------------------------

4. Mansfield

5. Northampton

6. Scunthorpe

7. Exeter

----------------------------

8. FGR

9. Salford 

10. Walsall

11. Crewe

12. Colchester

13. Grimsby

14. Port Vale

15. Newport

16. Carlisle

17. Leyton Orient

18. Stevenage

19. Cheltenham

20. Cambridge

21. Oldham

22. Crawley

---------------------------

23. Morecambe

24. Macclesfield

 

41 minutes ago, boundaryblue80 said:

 

He left because the job wasn’t what he wanted. The position of manager was no longer available (a position which would include signing of players). The position offered was Head Coach. If a director or chairman or Head of Football or whoever then signs players, that isn’t interference. I know folk want to promote is that...but it isn’t. That is club policy now. Just like how Ole at the scum won’t sign players or Klopp at Liverpool etc. Fans still haven’t got their heads around the fact the club has moved to that style. Which AL is perfectly entitled to do. Considering AL and whoever he may have as backers is putting in the money to do this, for now, they deserve time to see how it pans out. Promotion in 2yrs he said right? Let’s see it then. 

 

 

No doubt this European player recruitment model is being more widely adopted, but does somebody tell solskjaer and Klopp which players they can pick for the starting 11? I doubt it.

Anyone else think he won’t be around by next Tuesday so there’s no point holding it

Fairly sensible plan by the Lemmy’s and Baz to have the November to January Head Coach already at the club

7 hours ago, unsworthlatic said:

Okay, so after letting the dust settle and having quite a rant on twitter against one side in particular, I’ve decided to try, TRY and do a piece that is balanced and fair. Despite it being balanced though, it will show my opinion throughout as I do, as many others do, feel passionately regarding Oldham Athletic. So here goes.

 

The club inevitably was in major crisis following the Moore era back in 2003/04. The Three Amigos (“TTA”) came in and saved us…celebration Sunday was a great day against Grimsby and all of a sudden we had a future again. I’m sure they came in for their own benefit which would come off the back of the club benefitting. Not a problem in itself to me. The proposed move to Failsworth ultimately didn’t come to fruition and what happened thereafter has contributed massively where we find ourselves today.

 

Corney decided to sell the club, well, what I mean by club, is the badge, players and staff to the ‘right person’ in Abdallah. Again no issue. At this stage, anything was better surely than the club being starved and slowly being taken into oblivion. I did however question, why has he only bought the club as it is and not the rest of what the club should be (in my opinion, everything) and that still remains to today.

 

My theory – Abdallah believed in his players and the players that he could showcase in England. Not a problem. He brought a few, then more and more and more. If they are good enough, they can give us 6/12 months, help Oldham Athletic progress and move them on for a decent sum of money before doing this again. After all it’s a pool of players no other League One/Two club delve into. Not a bad business model in itself. This however, has not worked. We haven’t sold any of them on and to my recollection we have had 14 including the current crop.

 

Now, over the past 18 months, Abdallah has apparently tried to agree a price to purchase Boundary Park and the Car Park but stated that the asking price was too high in his opinion. I’d love to know what he offered. Since he came in 18 months/2 years ago, the club has gone backwards. Literally speaking too, suffering relegation back to the 4^th tier of English football for the first time since 1971, even Corney didn’t manage this (more by luck than judgement granted!).

 

During his tenure of 2 years as I believe he was pulling strings at the start of 2017/18 season whilst the sale was going through, we have had 5 different managers (6 if you include Banide) as well as staff being hired and fired at what seemed a weekly basis! Since then, we have seen a countless number of outcrys on social media regarding how poorly he treats his staff. This was clear with treatment of players such as Davies, Gerrard, Fane, Byrne, Hunt and seemingly in the end Peter Clarke as well as staff such at Steve Cross and Tony Philiskirk taking the club to an Employment Tribunal over the reasoning of their dismissals.

 

Abdallah, to my knowledge, still hasn’t published the accounts, season tickets are down by 800+ from last year and we limped to a pitiful 14^th placed finish in League Two during our first season in there. There is, to my knowledge, no finance option available anymore to purchase a season ticket (I have bought one in blind faith up front so not required for myself!) and we currently have 17 players which includes 2 first year pro’s, 2 players who didn’t go with the club to Morocco leaving us with the only striker at present being Urko Vera. Sadly, this is nothing short of laughable.

 

Now, onto the FLG. Do I think they provide all of the answers? No, I don’t sadly. Their intentions sound too good to be true. However, the club has and is being run in a shambolic manner, I can’t see how anybody can disagree. Now, I am aware of at least 1 person who is involved in the FLG and know that he is a staunch Latics fan who attends both home and away games. He loves the club just like you and I do. As I’ve stated before, I’ve been told by Pete Wild, who knows what both parties has to offer that FLG is the way to go and to support them in their quest.

 

Brings me on to my next point, what is their quest? – Well, I’ve been advised (this may well be incorrect, only going off what I have been told) that their quest is to bring Oldham Athletic from a broken football club back to ONE entity. This means its entirety including badge, pitch, stands, floodlights, car park, players and staff. This to me can only be a positive. I have also been told that they could very well afford to buy the lot but running the club to a L1/L2 level may be tricky. As such, I am of the understanding, that they would buy the ground first, acquiring the land before offering “x” amount for the club (part that AL) currently owns. At this stage, they would look to sell to a person/party that they believe could take Oldham Athletic forward. This person/party would then own the lot, everything, but surely that is a better prospect from a business point of view than owning this or that.

 

How long will this take? – Remains to be seen. However, the 27^th July event I am hoping will outline their intentions with a plan of how this will work and timescales to boot. Again, I was told by Wild, after the Northampton game “Support the FLG, they are good people who love the club. They have the club’s best intentions to heart. The next 18/24 months will be extremely tough but stick with it, they will and the club we all know and once fell in love with will return”

 

Now, this is where it has got/could get/will get tricky! AL is rattled by this. I would be too, if somebody threatened my business model. He is being asked to pay rent on a building that allows his business to function/live (shouldn’t be this way in the first place but it is) after deciding not to take up the option on acquiring the ground when offered it. As with any tenancy agreement, rent has to be paid. Has it been? Debatable. Some say yes, others say no. Who knows? But ask yourselves this, Why do the FLG exist? Do you believe they exist to make money on the back of Oldham Athletic Football Club despite being lifelong supporters? Do you believe that they are being unreasonable? I’m not sure I do.

 

The issue here is. Abdallah paying rent to have use of the North Stand. He doesn’t want to do this. Understandably so. Why? Because, he is then funding the next part of FLG’s plans. There is a purchase agreement in place to buy not only the North Stand but the ground, car park etc so why would he want to do that when the FLG’s initial plan is seemingly to buy the club at the end of all of this.

 

This could force an issue of Abdallah taking us away from Boundary Park. This suits absolutely nobody. The FLG will be left with a ground that nobody uses other than the North Stand hospitality etc. The fans lose out as we lose a major part of the club as we’d have to choose whether to watch Oldham Athletic at Spotland/Gigg Lane every other week and AL would have to pay rent to Bury/Rochdale to use this facility. Nobody wins!

 

How does this get resolved? I have absolutely no idea!

 

However, what I will say is that, I am glad that we have a FLG in place preparing for the worst. It is clear Bolton nor Bury had this and that very nearly and possibly should have cost them their respective clubs! They do care about the club, I am certain of that.

 

What are everybody else’s thoughts?

 

Sorry this is ridiculously long but there’s been a lot to cram in.

The bit I’ve highlighted was exactly what I was told in January by someone who I believe knows, or perhaps maybe even part of the FLG. Interesting your source has said the same thing

 Chances of decent signings?... slim to none I’d say.

13 minutes ago, leeslover said:

I'm not sure it takes that much money run a 4th division club. It does if your owner relies on it to fund his transatlantic lifestyle and strange obsession with Chinese perimeter boards, or wildly expensive foreign players of variable quality. 

Don’t suppose we’ll know any costs at all until someone starts filing the accounts!

It will be a cost saving measure, if the stand isn’t used then the football club won’t have to pay OEC anything for its use. The football club (allegedly) haven’t been paying their invoice for the OEC facilities, so it will be a way of not accruing anymore debt for it until it absolutely had to ie when the league fixtures begin.

It’s not just about season ticket numbers sold, it’s about revenue generated. If the percentage of tickets sold of concession tickets has increased, and the number of full adults tickets decreased plus the number of non renewers, the budget will have been impacted significantly.

Unless Marco is stumping up the shortfall of course 

10 hours ago, latics22 said:

Fucking mo, what a cunt. He may as well of done the interview whispering in his ear. For me hes the problem. Clarke said that he had no problem with AL and hes out the country most of the time. So the problem must be that muppet!

I think it may well have been him ‘suggesting’ to Paul Scholes who should be in the starting 11

7 minutes ago, Careca9 said:

better than i expected and im quite glad he's an english keeper rather than one thats not played in the EFL before. looking forward to seeing him in action but along with mills it looks a promising start to transfers for the summer as i was expecting a full foreign set of recruits

I think these could

possibly be sweeteners before the foreign invasion!

In don’t see how you can be a director of a business and claim to not know what the business owns and what it doesn’t, and that you have a landlord you owe money too.

That’s just downright negligence in my book, that along with not submitting accounts for years in a previous organisation you were a director of. And we are supposed to trust that he’s part of another board of directors that will turn the fortunes of the club around?

57 minutes ago, TheBigDog said:

I have absolutely no interest in your non attendance next season either...

Cool

Only realised the fixtures were even out today when I logged on here. Absolutely no interest at all... missed Morecambe last season so I wanted to go to that, but it’s Boxing Day so I’d have to drive and I can’t face watching us sober. And I won’t get a ticket for Salford without a season ticket so that’s probably a no go. So basically I can’t see me going to any games next season.

I think cautious optimism is the right approach... my fear is that as soon as he starts to challenge the regime he’ll be out.

I suppose that scenario would be further evidence of what we already suspect though.

I assume this is as a result of that advert that was placed asking if any fans were interested in joining the board?

I actually wish it would have been Jim Gannon now

Let’s not get too worked up about this appointment, he’ll only be here until October anyway