GlossopLatic

27 minutes ago, Bobledgersheart said:

If his final squad selection is anything to go by he may have turned over a new leaf.  

Not really he picked the best team that was available it's just that this England team has some formidable attacking talent and has a distinct lack of depth in defence.

25 minutes ago, Littlemoor Lad said:

His opinion is as valid as yours young Maurice 

Just because someone is entitled to their opinion doesn't mean they are right or worth listening too.

 Nah its good to just take a break from it all it's what the summer reset is about. Occasionally I dip in and out of here but I'm not expecting anything major to happen I reckon come the end of June we might start to see some activity. In the meantime watch some cricket or indulge in some other hobbies. The Euros will start next week so that will give people a footy fix too. Let all things Latics take a back seat for a couple of months. 

After pretty much a decade where the entire club was looking over its shoulder I'm still glad we are going into a pre season where we have a good chance being stronger in August than we were in May. Be thankful for small things sometimes.

Regarding James Berry he didn't appear to start all the games for Chesterfield last season and while making plenty of first team appearances wasnt exactly there star man. His stats are 33 appearences and 6 goals (which is as many as Nathan Sheron). Their is an arguement he could possibly would have improved us no doubt but he appears to have gotten almost demi god status for some reason.

1 hour ago, Handsy said:

If we want to go up we need to sign better than green 

It does feel like he along with a few others fall into that category of competent players at National League level but ones who might not get you out of it. You could put Sheron and Hogan in that category too along with the likes of Fondop and Gardner. It could be a case of using them as squad players.

The preferred formation is going to have an impact too. We built the squad based on a 3-5-2 last season as a result we didn't have any wingers. If we go with 4 at the back which could give us the flexibility to go 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 then we will probably need to atleast sign 3 wingers/wide forwards. 

1 hour ago, TheBigDog said:

Agree re Stones.

 

MM said that we have a number of players we are looking at - we need to be patient and trust that the right players move on and the right players come in.

 

Having secured Reagan Ogle, I reckon we could see as few as four additional signings. 
Full back, Midfield, Striker, Winger and that’s your lot!

 

 

It's likely it will be double that we've just let 10 go. 6 or 7 good signings should easily see us into the top 7 mind.

1 hour ago, LaticsEddie said:

 

2 ways to look at that- Great attitude, wants to prove himself and get his form back or he's on a decent wedge here and knows he wont get that elsewhere. Time will tell.

While we didn't see alot from Willoughby what little we did see didn't inspire enough to say that he should be here next season and certainly not as a starter. Unless he's been banging them in for fun then I'm not sure Mellon will have changed his mind on him. He's 27 not an age where you want to be warming the bench. So unless their has been a dramatic u-turn in both player form and manager opinion then I hope and indeed suspect its just Internet hearsay.

8 minutes ago, Bobledgersheart said:

The way he played he'd tackle a Grizzly ! 

I'm guessing if he was nailing prime Dani Behr it's fair to say he would have had a big tackle on him.

6 hours ago, True Tic said:

Of course! Didn’t he break a record doing press-ups or something?

Didn't he also shag Dani Behr?

1 hour ago, Frankly Mr Shankly said:

Alright, calm down Mr. Beige.

Yeah but if you meet a girl who makes you feel like you are 16 again you would get the bands t shirt wouldn't you?

As for Aussie bands a shout out to the DMAs but they have a feel of a British band.

4 hours ago, Monty Burns said:

Shrimp are tossed and not merely thrown onto the barbie. sometimes off the back of a Ute.

Fair dinkum 

1 hour ago, simplythemostimportantkick said:

I see pace. I see power. I see a bad ass mother who don’t take no short throws for nobody. 

I hope you said that while looking into a toilet mirror.

Say it again!

21 minutes ago, Dave_Og said:

Remarkable achievement to have been here since he was 11 but retain the mullet 

They are back in fashion amongst the gen zers Dave you not down with the kids?

30 minutes ago, simplythemostimportantkick said:

Hmmm… I’d like to dismiss it as a bad signing but I’ll mullet over first

2 minutes ago, Roger Ritchie said:

Strewth! What a ripper! 

It's a beauty isn't it!

I hope he arrived in a jeep and in Double Denim before knocking back a fosters and throwing a shrimp on the barbie.

Right Back!

Well we all knew we needed one deserves a thread of it's own.

11 minutes ago, Littlemoor Lad said:

I think the best chance we had has already come and gone, so has most of the budget,

Starting a new season on the back foot will be even harder, call it realism and a much dampened down expectation.

We already know the drill

Let's wait and see what this summer brings we don't know how this is going to play out yet. I know that it can feel abit "here we go again" with how last season finished, we aren't the luckiest set of fans in the world and I do wonder if their are Oldham fans going round intentionally driving over black cats and walking under ladders on a daily basis. But let's see what happens.

I don't think the Rothwells took this project on with the notion that if we fail at the first attempt we are going to give up, and go full Simon Corney on us. It's a long time in football terms to the start of next season and things could look alot different then.

I wonder if it will be on reduced terms. His performances at the end of the season probably shows that he's one that does want to do well for the club but we will struggle to get 20 games out of him.

This also might suggest that contracted players are on their way out as from what we can gather from the article in The Oldham Times a month ago. Offering contracts to him and 1 or 2 others we're dependent on us moving the contracted players out the door.

Southeds takeover still hasn't fully gone through and we don't know yet how much that will strengthen them so I wouldn't say they are a sure bet. FGRs fall from grace maybe suggests they aren't a certainty either and might need to transition abit.

I would say right now its an open field, but this could ofcourse change in the coming months depending on who recruits who, for these reasons it pretty much impossible to call where we will finish too right now.

5 hours ago, Monty Burns said:

we need about five players for a mint squad. will be nice to 'get some deals done early' if we do, but it isnt essential.

proper CDM, two rightbacks, a backup LB and some pacy forwards/wingers

 

deja vous again

That's atleast 6 players...

But you are right those are probably the key positions I'd possibly add a magic man in there too who can create something from nothing.

We were probably 3-4 from being promoted in January but most of them didn't work out and 12 months ago about 6-7 additions you would have thought would have been enough to turn us into a promotion team we didn't get it right on either occasion. 

It's going to be an open division next season no obvious favourite like their has been for the last 2 years for that reason it might just be our chance who knows.

2 hours ago, Pidge said:

I must admit to thinking the comments were strange.  Surely the fans are responding to a poor first 20 mins if they get on the teams back.  So logic would suggest the fans are not to blame for an ALREADY poor performance.

 

If MM is suggesting our team gets even worse after 20 minutes when the fans change from supportive to calling them out, then that’s something he needs to take up with the team, surely.

It wasn't strange at all plenty of previous managers have said it at this club and plenty of managers will say it at other clubs too. It was merely a polite request to get the fans onside he wasn't blaming the fans at all the person who said that has made it up. 

As I've said on the other thread it's abit of give and take the players who sign for us have to understand that their is an expectation for this club from the fans that we should be challenging for promotion, we have to do significantly better at home than we did last season.

However as fans we literally have one job get behind the team, in tight games that could well make the difference interms of getting us over the line for a win. We are the biggest club in the division and potentially have the biggest 12th man now how do we want to use it?

If we are challenging at the top next season teams will come here and get men behind the ball, it might take time for us to break those teams down that will take patience. So don't be surprised if we get some difficult games that is going to happen and its going to require patience in games, we stick behind the team for 90 minutes then we might just turn a 0-0 into a 1-0 win.

1 hour ago, OAFC_ULTRA said:

We also seem to think that decades of changing manager every 6 months and winning fuck all is what we should carry on doing. Its about time we stuck with a manager and actually gave them a chance to build something. If it takes another 12 months then so be it. I know after donkeys years of winning nothing people are desperate to see success, so what does it matter if we have to give a manager time to achieve it

Abit radical that isn't it?

50 minutes ago, JoeP said:

 

Well yes, but how do you square that circle? Try and get 6k people to only say nice things or sign players who have the resilience to deal with it? As I've said elsewhere, we need characters ahead of quality this summer...

 

I get negativity isn't helpful and opposition teams have used it as a tool, but I don't think it should be the issue it's being made out to be. It's unrealistic - unfair almost - to expect the fans to watch what they say in case some players go fetal. It's something Mellon has to expect will happen and deal with. Give the players tools to deal with it - tell the players to use humour, patronise, give them the cupped ear when we score etc.  Control what you can control, because people are going to be dicks whether they're told not to or otherwise...

Their should be abit of give and take.

The players should expect that signing for us means the expectations are higher here than say a club like Fylde. We should be challenging for promotion next season. I listened to undr the cosh recently and it had Tim Sherwood on and they were discussing Harry Kane and how he had abit of a rough start on loan at Millwall and he was getting it from the crowd, they were thinking of bringing him back but Sherwood insisted on him staying there and that he will learn to deal with it, and in time he did and he won the crowd over. Now not everyone has the mentality of someone like Harry Kane but it is possible they can learn to deal with it.

I don't think Mellon was being unreasonable about what he said about the fans at the forum it was a polite request to get behind the team. Yes the Athleticos have been really positive and I hope they can continue to be that way, but there are pockets of the stadium where their can be cynicism and that can come through, I dont think its asking too much to ask people to keep the cynicism to a limit.

I will also say though (and this would be my message To the players and coaching staff) is that if they go out every game with the intention to fight for every ball and to leave nothing in the changing room then in time the Oldham fans will appreciate that and will forgive any deficiencies in playing ability and will back the team.

4 minutes ago, JoeP said:

 

Negativity is negativity. 

 

Surely you'd take to heart more from your teammate who's supposed to be your equal than some half-wit in the crowd who's possibly pissed and never kicked a ball in their life?

Depends on the individual players some will be able to shrug it off with ease Joe Garner has played for Glasgow Rangers the pressure of playing for a club like that is on a completely different level to what you hear at Boundary Park. I'd imagine someone like that who's been round the block abit could shrug it off. Some of the younger players maybe abit more sensitive to it. He alludes to Josh Lundstrum who's been used to playing infront of 1500 at Altrincham who have never been in the football league someone like that might need abit more encouragement.

49 minutes ago, whittles left foot said:

Covered just about every option there.

Perhaps you will be able to do a @GKing521 and tell us `I you told you so' in future.

Ha Indeed you can laugh now if you want but I boldly predict we will win lose or draw all 46 league games next season.

11 hours ago, Lags said:

So Pete Wild is destined for a higher league two or league one club currently who's stock is only going to rise.  Yet when the time is right he'll be Latics manager again. 

2 possibilities then,  he fails and falls back to our level or we rise above league one. 

Pete Wild has achieved nothing yet. 

Sort off but let's say he has another 15-20 years as a manager highly possible given his age then its likely he will have quite a few ups and downs, as it is quite possible we will have in that time aswell. Their will come a point where his and our aims and aspirations align but it's not quite yet. 

It's also possible that things don't go right for him he has a few jobs that don't work out and he goes off to be a youth team coach or an assistant somewhere while we go on to bigger and better things.