lookers87

I don't subscribe to some of 0000's views but will commend you on your attempt to create a positive discussion on the Trust. I actually agree with many of the points you put in your initial post. And wrote similar recently. Organisation, communication and a clear strategy are the big aspects, that in my view the Trust should look to address. If I could take it back to before Barry's intervention, in my view (and what I think Barry may have been trying to mean) we have a Trust, which is governed by, as I understand it, (yes possibly slightly dated) rules - set with the original help of Supporters Direct and governed by law. We, unlike some other Trusts, are in a fortunate position (putting personal feelings about individuals aside) to have a shareholding and seat on the board. Talk therefore of new supporters associations/revolutions on the steps - which in my view would have less rigorous governance- is I fear potentially divisive and largely pointless. After all we already have a vehicle, granted with more than a few broken or damaged bits, that still has the potential to make a difference. Let's face it, the club, and it's organisational failings, present a great opportunity for a reinvigorated Trust to lead parts of the agenda and create a strong voice. The reason the Reading Trust appears strong is really down to one factor - number of members. As 0000 has said, finance (through membership fees) plays a part, but also the more numbers involved the better and stronger the directors of the Trust can be. Get the organisation, communication and focus/purpose clear and get some confidence back and numbers, in my view, will follow. Personally I do think there has been a dilution of the purpose and activities of the Trust, which lets not forget is almost 10 years old and was created at a time when it had 1 crucial purpose. Understandably, when that immediate concern passed involvement steadily fell and unfortunately the focus has become clouded. However, I know a couple of the current board and they are working very hard, and most importantly recognise the need for change - and that is the collective view of the board from my understanding. I am also aware that in Barry, like him or not, there is someone who has spent 10 years trying to plug holes in a sometimes chaotic club - sometimes he's done alright, other times he's failed. But at the end of the day he's 1 man, the Trust is an organisation that could be made a hell of a lot better even if Barry remains in post. That's why as a Trust member I'll be at the AGM - looking to get further involved and hopefully part of leading the agenda going forward.

And knowing one of the burnley directors (main money man) personally, for all the good, bad, tight or generous types - burnley has always had a board of directors 6-7 strong, all fans incidentally (and decent business men in their own right). It's been my view for a long time that Corney / the club would benefit hugely by appointing some board members who run businesses who can bring structure, strategy and organisation to the place. Corney rightly can't be away from his family and with his focus firmly on the stand which he sees as his to get sorted he needs help, and if investors aren't forthcoming at least give your business the best help you can by inviting some non-exec directors onto the board to help things. It would take some pressure off, add more contacts into the mix which can lead to something. Unfortunately I fear it is Corneys ego that is stopping such a sensible move. By the way I have offered this suggestion up along with days spent putting together strategy/ vision reports to the current board and have so far found a door in much the same state as you Rummy...firmly shut.

Ridiculous move from the club. Sure try things, but where is the strategy? They think they're being clever but the PR move on this was telegraphed completely...and then they still cocked up the final move...typical. Even as a 10 yr chaddy season ticket holder I'm not averse to ultimately moving. By the way, I think until the new stand is built, the club would be shooting themselves in the foot switching home fans into the RRE...as it stands they have flexibility in the use of that stand with the way it is divided. A move to Chaddy would negate that. BUT any trial to do a chaddy to RRE switch this season will be opposed. RRE season tickets were discounted for "inconvenience" . On principle, if the club want to move my ticket anywhere I'll be expecting an "inconvenience" fee... ...but then perhaps that's what the home performances have largely been...

I saw the ref incident and think Mike Keegan's got it wrong. Connor climbed out of the Chaddy, noticed the ref was getting a card out of his pocket ready to book Kusunga and grabbed the refs arms to stop him - ref took it badly and booked Connor at which point Connor gave him a mouthful and carried on back to halfway...not exactly hugs and kisses. Having said all that Connor had a great 2nd half yesterday - going forward has always been the better side of his game. It'll be great if he can maintain that form for a period of time now particularly as it ensures Smith moves back to CM.

Apologies in advance for the lengthy post coming up, amongst a number of other Oldham memories I've taken this extract from an upcoming book, maybe won't make an obvious list of Latics moments, but certainly a memorable one... ...It wasn’t a particularly special goal in technique terms. It wasn’t scored by a legend of Oldham, let alone a football legend. It wasn’t in a massive game or local derby. It wasn’t even by someone who was with us for an entire season. It was a 20 year old who earned himself 2 months worth of contracts at the start of the 2003/04 season and made 13 appearances, a young lad by the name of Matt O’Halloran. At the time of writing, Matt is turning out for Lincoln Moorlands Railway, a long, long way away from league football. That for me is a shame, because Matt is someone who has a special place in my heart, and most importantly my eyes. He made me cry. It wasn’t even that ‘special’ a strike. It was a decent hit as I remember, but not breathtaking. It somehow though became the strike that made me (and I’m sure a good many other Latics fans) cry. It was the moment, the signal that Oldham Athletic had regained consciousness after a summer of intensive care when it looked, on more than one occasion, like our club would breathe no more. After a summer when former owner and Chris Moore had withdrawn his cash and rode off into the sunset leaving our club on the brink of liquidation. In the process, selling our best players who had come so close to sealing a place in the Championship for nothing and letting the remaining good players go for free. O’Halloran had been drafted in as a cheap stop gap, one of a rag-tag bunch of journeyman pro’s and young, unproven castoffs. The pre-season friendlies that summer had been a mix of trial matches for anyone and everyone who could lace a pair of boots, and fund-raising celebrity/ex-pro exhibition games. It was sometimes difficult to tell the two types apart such was the bottom of the barrel that was being scrapped to bring people in. Needs certainly did must at the start of the 2003/04 season, indeed the fact that we had a club at all to kick off the season was enough for most of us. It really isn’t an exaggeration to say that we were hours, if not minutes away from the club going out of business. So it didn’t matter that they were a rag-tag bunch, they were our rag-tag bunch. As you’d expect with such a summer of turmoil we hadn’t started the season that well. 6 games into the season we’d gained 1 point, a remarkable one at that as a once retired John Sheridan stroked home a penalty that went some way to earning Latics a 2-2 draw against just relegated Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. Sheridan even then in his 30’s had the knees of a 65 year old. Still 6 games in and we were in the relegation zone and the season was looking longer by the game. Matt O’Halloran, who made his first start in Latics blue in that Sheffield Wednesday game, was on the bench for the visit of Rushden and Diamonds, a side that had been rushing through the divisions backed by the Dr Martens millions of Max Griggs, with future Oldham manager Brian Talbot in charge. Things had started well in the game itself with the legend John Sheridan, creaking knees n’all slotting home an early penalty. Then Onandi Lowe, a name many Soccer Saturday viewers will remember, hit a screamer from fully 35 yards that arrowed into the goal in front of me and Andy and Rushden were level. It was the kind of goal that gets scored against you when you’re at the bottom. A frustratingly great goal for opposition fans such as us. You just know that even if the player in question has a habit of long distance strikes, it would still be the only one of he’ll ever hit, and he’s scored it against you. We played excellently in that first half and should’ve been further in front, however it wasn’t until the 2nd half that we scored again. This time Mr Michelle Marsh (aka Will Haining) scrabbled home a scrappy goal to put us 2-1 up, before Marcus Bignot scored for Rushden in the 81st minute. We were broken. I turned to Andy, and he gave me the same look I knew was on my face, the one of depressing inevitability. We had deserved to win the game, yet here we were level at 2-2 desperate for a win of any kind, it looked a long way off and we knew it. Oldham manager Iain Dowie took the final, and only, gamble he could, throwing on the youngsters Carlos Roca (from the youth team) and Matt O’Halloran on in the 85th minute. In all honesty it felt like nothing more than a token gesture to see if anything, just anything could happen. Inevitably the final 5 minutes rushed by and the stewards were out lining up ready for the full time whistle. 4 minutes of injury time were almost up when the ball was played into young striker Scott Vernon. He teed up the young, unassuming blond lad who from almost nowhere arrowed a shot towards the Chaddy End goal. Even with a defender trying his best to get in the way there was no stopping it, and in that way that always seems to happen at these moment, for the split-ist of split seconds a collective intake of breath meant it seemed to go deathly quiet. Then booooooooom! The crowd exploded, Andy and I were jumping like men possessed and 5,000 Oldham fans were going mental. Matt O’Halloran, had produced a moment that will live with me forever. This future nobody of league football hit the goal that gave us win number one of the 2003/04 season and something even more important. It was the moment a summer of heartache, worry, stress and devastation came flooding out of us all. Well it certainly came flooding out of me. In the midst of the celebrations, at the end of a huge primeval, braveheart style roar of celebration, I felt the tears of relief rolling down my face. We’d done it, my club felt saved and it felt good. Thank you Mr Matt O’Halloran.

When investing in a business/setting it up/plugging shortfalls as a shareholder you are 'loaning' the money to the company. Hence the reason it is listed as shareholder loans. It's the same for all business like this (an accounting term). Sometimes as a shareholder that money will be lent to the business with a repayment rate attached, other times it's a zero % rate, and indeed with some business a shareholder will invest the money with a 0% repayment and actually not require that money back. However it will remain listed as shareholder loans in the accounts until such time that it is repaid or converted in some way....I'm not an accountant so some of the terms are my layman explanation from being on the shareholder side of it. My understanding is that the 0% situation is pretty much the basis that the shareholder loan are in on. Again as I understand it the vast majority of that amount is actually due to Blitz - not Corney. In terms of some other stuff, I think it's out there in the public domain that the costs of environmental surveys, consultants fees etc etc etc for both the various BP projects and the Failsworth projects were all put through the club (Oafc2004) at various times. If you search out Corney's interview on the podcast with Manchester Sports (BBC) August 2011, he clearly says in there that the "club" is for sale (even then as he has always maintained), but in terms of the ground development etc that isn't and they will be sticking round to see that through.

I am of the mind that there are are a few different factors at play here that need to be separated (even though they follow a common thread). First, the role of Supporter Liaison Officer (as prescribed by UEFA) was a move (from what I know) focused, as usual, at the bigger clubs but prescribed across the board. It's creation does not take into account any channels, trusts, fan involvement already in play at a club. However, it is a dictat clubs must abide by. Therefore it was a role assigned to "the best" person from the personnel already operating within the club. So in many ways it immediately becomes a "title only" role. Not a slight on Jenny, but she has plenty on plate as it is, and I'm not sure how much she enjoys/is focused on supporter service. Secondly, and separate to the above, the club has, for many years been less than great in it's communication, commercial and service focus. That isn't to say there aren't people working hard and doing the jobs to the best of their (sometimes considerable) ability. It's just that the organisation as a whole, in my view, has lacked an experienced, marketing savvy approach and some clear communication structures for some time. This is at the heart of many of the complaints of one type or another over the past few years. Thirdly, the Trust has understandably lost it's direction somewhat. The reason imho is completely understandable, it was an organisation formed at the time for a very specific purpose...that purpose came and went and as the years have ticked by there have been several different areas that have tried to be covered by the Trust which has perhaps given it a moving target in terms of a focus. I know that the Trust themselves recognise that and have already been looking to create a new way of working and new focus for what can be a very key organisation and rally point for us all again. That's why several people with various skills, experience and opinions have been sought out over the past few months. At the end of the day you will never please all the people all the time, but as long as communication channels are clear, and by that I mean 2-way channels, and people are clear on who, when and where, I think the majority except this. So the Trust has work to do, as does the club in terms of communication, organisation and service. If this is done then we'll know what needs directing to who and when, and if that really is the Supporter Liaison Officer. But at the end of the day that all means nothing without a clear direction for the club who are at the heart of this.

Source...

And the perils of running clubs at this level...Bury aren't the only one requiring a cash injection quickly... Preston need £4m.... http://www.insiderme...st_news_tracker

Cody McDonald