outoftheblue

LOL

I'll book the open-top bus in anticipation

I expect Promotion and at least one Cup (Preferably the FA), plus a major ex-prem signing to show the TTA mean business. * Sits back and awaits whoosh replies from certain quarters *

Between you and Leyland Latic you have managed to put your finger on just a fraction of the reasons to hate the scum! OT is the Pandoras box of British football - it contains all the worst ills of the game (Most of it through sheer greed), and encapsulates the chief reason why football is in the state it is, and why us smaller teams are struggling to survive. MU would be delighted if we went to the wall - all it would mean to them is an opportunity to gain some more support / cash from supporters with no-one else to watch. They should never be forgiven for their arrogance in 1990 and 1994 when they were outplayed but received amazing luck from linesmen in both games, and still said they deserved to be in the FA cup final. Those occasions cost us the best opportunity we've had of competing financially with the bigger teams and ultimately put us in the precarious position we saw ourselves in 5 years ago. Hate doesn't come close!

Can't disagree with any of this, other than I'd like more than £500k for Eardley if he had to go. We have a very good squad there - they just need to understand each other and want to win.

Is this 'whoosh week' ?

My 5yr old daughter won 4 tickets in exactly the same way at st aidans and she's massively excited about the game. Trouble is, I've got to give up my usual seat with the boys in order to sit with her and the Mrs in the RRE - won't be able to laugh at Shez's comments from there

Totally agree - What a ludicrous idea that would be. The other teams just wouldn't accept it and the FL would be dealing with a large scale mutiny.

The club have sent out quite a few complimentaries out for the local school kids this week (My little 'un brought 4 home) - so it may be open to home fans anyway.

Strangely enough, On Tuesday (Also whilst playing golf) one of my suppliers who is a sponsor at Old Trafford mentioned that "United will be a stronger team when we get Richards". Obviously I laughed it off, but he insisted it was more likely than I thought - Now you've got me wondering.

I once jokingly (Honest!) told my dad I'd been round Oldham the night before and finished off at the Georgian. He replied "Bloody overpriced rubbish!" After my initial shock at his seemingly educated view of Oldham's long established 'Massage parlour' it transpired that he thought it was just another of Oldham's overly priced Town Centre boozers. Don't you just love old folk?

I received a quote on Tuesday morning from Sign UK on Manchester St. The quote was for the design of a new company logo produced in 4 formats plus all the reproduction rights (upon registration of course). The cost? £45 !! Does OMBC's figure of £100,000 cover the rebranding of all their vehicles and signs across the borough, and all their stationery? or is that a further expense? If it does indeed cover these costs, I would still suggest that it could be done for one third of that. Someone needs to justify this unnecessary use of much needed funds.

All this 'Never have voted Tory and never will' stuff makes me laugh. People are prepared to ignore the rapid decline of the town and stick by the party that they 'Always have, always will' voted for rather than challenge the other parties to change for the better. The LD's lasted one term because they were absolutely clueless, and still are. Yet there are people prepared to vote for them and fester in the outcome because either their parents always despised the Tories or because some Labour pillock led a revolt against the BP development. God knows why we allow everyone the vote if this is how it is used. I drove up Waterloo St last night, and noticed all the regeneration from local government grants being carried out on private homes - when I saw all the "Vote Labour" signs in the windows of those same houses it brought it home who has the biggest voice in this town (Read into that what you like - I'll just state the facts). I will vote for the change this town needs, and hold my hands up if it all goes belly up - but at least I'll be satisfied that I tried.

There were quite a few posters who couldn't understand why Ricketts was given such a long contract in the first place - Give a promising youngster a decent contract on low money, yes. Give a cocky waster who has been slung on the crapheap a few times a decent contract on good money, NO NO NO!

Yes quite.

Not sure - Your post, you supply the facts - possibly a dozen, but bear in mind we will now have Gregan, Stam, Crossley, Hughes, Liddell, Hazell, Thompson, Eardley, McDonald, Taylor, Davies, Allott, Smalley, Lomax and maybe Alessandra who could all command a first team place, along with one or two youngsters (E.g Black, Kelly, Chalmers, Wolfenden) to come through, I'm not sure we will be bringing too many players in that will slot straight in. With the exception of possibly Thompson (Perhaps unfortunately), I'm sure there are a few fans out there that would be disappointed to lose any of those players without replacing them with the kind of class that we just can't afford.

It's generally and widely accepted that a fresh team takes around 3 years to bed in (Or 3 months if you believe some Latics fans). I think all the hype surrounding the "If we don't get promotion this year, then we'll certainly do it next year" comments has pretty much contributed to that view over the last few years.

Blimey! 7 new faces? That's half your matchday squad. I hope we don't have another season of ripping the team apart to start again, as that would only suggest that 1) The injuries were not the reason behind our failure to improve on last season 2) We are going back to square one and the '3 year plan' hasn't worked and 3) Either 7 of our promising youngsters aren't considered good enough, or 7 of our seasoned pros that are the nucleus of our promotion push aren't really as good as Shez led us to believe. The squad's a good one - a lot of managers would give their right arm for it. Let's see what JS can do with it next season.

Sorry, I misunderstood the use of 'You'. As I've said elsewhere, I'm with the Xmas '08 lot. Shez needs to start 3 new seasons to have been given a fair chance - I am disappointed but realistic, and I understand it takes time and a lot of player shuffling to produce a good team (Big Joe was here 5 years before he tasted the play-offs). However, it is improvement I want to see, and I have my suspicions that Shez will want to tear the team up and start again next season, rather than show he can motivate and manage what is essentially already a decent squad. We will know by Xmas, and we will see whether it is working - only then will I commit myself to an opinion on his future. Anyway, this has turned into another in/out debate which is something we don't need, so I'll leave it at that.

Don't you think we've annoyed the Carlton Way residents enough already this year?

Oh, I get it now! We ignore the first 10 games where we had a tidy looking squad, then we ignore the little things in individual games (Such as the Walsall, Swindon, Luton defeats where we were only awake for 30 minutes, and the Udders cup defeat where we rolled over). Then we ignore the dire football that we have watched for 70% of the season, and the fact that so many potential loan players have done the "Just got to make a phone call" vanishing act after chatting with Shez. We also ignore a failure to use transfer windows to our advantage, and disregard all the playoff targets that weren't met, plus no reduction in the number of disciplinary suspensions (Many through dissent). We can choose to ignore many things in order to manipulate statistics if we want to stick our blinkers on, and then we can turn a a sensible debate into another boring Shez in/out argument if we still don't take those blinkers off. We can also then 'lose all respect for the opinions on football' of people who see it differently, and we can label those people idiots and impatient, unreasonable impossible to please fools. Once we have managed this we have abundant optimism, and we are all delighted with the way the season has gone, so we might as well shut all the message boards down because Latics' stagnation in League One is no longer cause for concern or worth talking about. I have not stated I want Shez immediately removed, yet I do want to see improvement - I am not a fool as you suggest. I am someone who sees it differently. The club have advanced impressively in the last 5 years - now it's time for the team to follow suit.

I hope you're ready for the backlash of that comment Ketsbaia

Why would we choose to ignore ANY games? If anything our injury woes were not apparent then, and the only real difference would be that Hughes wasn't playing (As he wouldn't for the last 10). All the games count toward the final tally, and the fact that last season's position was greater than this season's would suggest that we haven't actually improved. Let's move away from the in / out opinions of Shez, and ask ourselves whether we think he has improved over two seasons. I personally don't think he has improved significantly enough, and thought we should have made the playoffs this season, but that doesn't make me an outer - it makes me a disappointed fan. Keep the faith? - of course we bloody will, but we'll form and retain our own opinions while we're at it.

What happened to all the 'Smalley is crap' posters that were on here a few weeks ago? do they no longer post on the board, or has Deane proved them wrong? The lad has improved hugely, and has the makings of a very decent player.

Whilst the Everton victory was fantastic and unforgettable, I think some are going way over the top using it to justify a successful season - after all, we immediately wasted the chance to advance further by putting in a very average performance in the next round against Udders (Who believe their manager wasn't getting enough out of his team). The FA Cup always throws up shocks - Barnsley beating Chelsea was a massive one, and over the years we have had a few great cup victories such as Arsenal '89, and more relevantly our defeat of Man City under the management of a total idiot (In most peoples eyes). Let's hope for many more Evertonesque victories - but we should also keep perspective, and remember "One swallow doth not a summer make". It is reproducing those performances that makes a good manager - and Shez still needs to do that before he becomes 'The only man for the job'.