De_La_Vega

This board is becoming a joke - some of the people posting are becoming so polarised in their opinions that there just isn't any sensible debate. Nobody is above questions being asked, and TTA are funding losses at a club that is sitting on land with a value well in excess of the money that they've pumped in - why shouldn't people ask questions? Since we put a significant fee together to get Davies, where have they put out good money? In return we have seen £500k for Trotman, about £100k (so I heard) for Davies and probably about £250k (after Wrexham) for Eardley. The best part of a million in, and probably only just over twice that paid to cover costs - all that means that they haven't been bankrupting themselves given that BP's site is worth many times that. However, they saved the club and until this season I haven't had cause to question their banking to the managers. Sheridan's last season was a disaster, and from what I can see Penney's squad is nice, but with real issues up front and at the back. Clearly those are the two key areas at our level. So, while the uncertainty over the stadium, the issues with spending on the team and the club's long-term strategy are all areas that TTA are responsible for, they cannot be held accountable for the managers' poor decisions. We have had excellent opportunities to get out of this division, and it is the playing squad and management who are responsible for us not taking them. The real criticism that I would level at the club over the last 4 years is that we have chopped and changed the squad far too much - probably about 20 transfers in or out every summer is no way to build a team. Every season we seem to have been trying to get a team that would get us up, when maybe we should have been looking to utilise our youth team and bolster it with some young lads from elsewhere that we could have brought on. Much like Scunthorpe and their numerous successes in finding young strikers being released...

My two-penneth... TTA came into the club with, as has been stated elsewhere, a bit of a blaze of publicity and obviously a lot of new-fangled ideas. The signing of Davies for a significant outlay was a statement of intent, and I can't really complain about the squads that have been built up on the budgets that they have approved. However, I think that TTA have always been interested in the financial side of the game more than anything else - from the off Boundary Park has been central to their plans and given what has been said surrounding the Failsworth site it sounds more and more like their involvement was pre-supposed on making a profit from the land value. To be fair if I was them then I'd have been miffed by the amount of resisitance that interest groups within the Oldham area have put up; Clayton playing fields, planning permission et al... All strikes me that they have lost interest, and I can't really blame them. That said though, we have had 2 excellent opportunities to get out of this division that we have fouled up through bad management or player issues.

I'm not even bothering to read past the letter itself, but a few things I would say. What has DP done to deserve such support? Not a criticism of him, but I feel that you earn respect and support, just as you earn the flak that you get (unless you are called "Eardley"). We have allowed a transfer window to close with the squad glaringly incomplete, with a huge issue surrounding the centre-halves and keeper who surely must be the keystone to any good side. DP oversaw this, and I know few Latics fans who wouldn't have given their eye-teeth to have Fleming back this year or a good young entre-half instead of :censored:, Parker and a few others that we have brought in. While you are right to suggest that he should be given time to bring his design to fruition, I would suggest that he does not deserve any more support than any other worker in any other job - that is that there is an understanding of the difficulties but you must deliver ultimately. My biggest fear is that I do not see this as a season of consolidation - I see it as another one going nowhere. I've no idea how the team is going to look in a year - where is our long-term direction? When DP shows me his vision, then mabe I'll believe. Until then you can only judge by the results and they have been indifferent. So, maybe a little les sanctimonious in your next epistle please.

Lancy Lad Nobody should criticise the owners' financial investment to date, but likewise we should not be blinded by loyalty in the belief that they are doing things out of some altruistic notion. I also never criticised them for not throwing money after the likes of Hughes or Wellens again - in fact I seem to recall hinting that we may have been spoiled by them... However, surely it is no crime to have been spoilt in the past and then struggle to gain the enthusiasm for a weaker team with slim prospects?

What utter drivel mate - the Corp pays his money, and supports his team. What right have you got to question the depth of the guy's feeling for the club? Apart from the depressing nature of it, a lot of what he says is pretty spot on and worth thinking about. I moan about Latics all the time, and this season I have lost a lot of the buzz about the game. But guess what? I was at Swindon, Brentford and I'm genuinely excited about Friday - a couple of beers on a Friday and a game is well worth getting up for even though I fully expect the game itself to be naff and the dirty Pool to slutch a 1-0 win like they always seem to at BP. I don't like people getting on the players' backs, but isn't that the point of having a forum like this to complain away from the heat of the moment? Why have a go at guys who are venting on OWTB? Fact is that this Latics team is underwhelming. The stadium is a worrying issue, especially the more I hear about the finances behind the owners' desire not to redevelop BP - maybe all conjecture but you can never be sure. We have lost some of our more talented players and in Hughes, Kilkenny and the mighty Wellens you could well argue that we have been spoilt in recent years - all the more reason for the current crop to be disappointing. Throw in high ticket prices and a recession and why the hell shouldn't people moan? When we have looked good in the past we have had a real sense that the players were together and enjoyed playing for the team - the back end of last year broke that bond and subsequent player transfers have seen an entirely new team emerge that people will take time to warm to. We need Taylor back, and a few of the young lads to kick on - everyone loves a youngster doing well - plus we need a centre-back. Nobody can get excited about a team going nowhere, and with our defence at the minute that is exactly what we are doing.

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????? What the fudge?????????????????????????????????/ Unbelievable comments. Distribution from Gregan today was consistantly poor, with several dangerously slack balls played across dangerous areas. I am not a Gregan hater, and personally think he is a terrific passer - a bloke who still shows the qualities of a higher level in some of his play. Yesterday however, that was not in evidence. Defenders got caught for position several times, and both Gregan and Hazell were rolled softly by the centre-forwards on more than one occasion. Gregan not a foot wrong? What about when in the second-half he got so badly out of place on his man that the guy nearly walked through the middle? All across the back of the team the quality was low. Full-backs used the ball badly, albeit Holdsworth had a much better second half. Gregan and Hazell are not a good partnership and they will cost us this year. Obviously Hazell's back-pass was shocking, but that was an error. Much more worrying is the consistent frailty that our back 5 displays and has done for several seasons.

Interesting idea, although there would need to be a very carefully thought out play-off system to ensure that the divisions had the same amount of sustained interest in the season that there currently is. Certainly not against the idea on principal, and I am unconvinced by most of the arguments against. A lot sound to me like "it isn't what we do so could never work forever amen" - which is a not uncommon reaction to sporting innovations! Personally I'd take some convincing that you aren't punishing teams that have thrived in a meritocracy, but it is certainly not an idea I'd dismiss out of hand.

Gilbert may well be a steady Eddy, but the fact is that every time he went forward yesterday he lost the ball through poor distribution. If we haven't got fit wingers then we need our full-backs to contribute going forward to provide width, and he can't do that - at least from what I've seen. As for :censored: - what I said wasn't a criticism. He does his water-carrying well but we are going to struggle if he and Worthington are our pairing in the middle - they are too similar. Plus I did feel that the pair of them needed to do a bit more to shield the defence when we started to come under pressure in the second half.

Amusing that Oldham is such a hot-bed of hard-working salt of the earth types who've knuckled down and scrapped for every dime... Hypothetical scenario - young lad who has always seemed destined to make the grade as a pro footballer so has always had smoke blown up his ass. Comes to a new club, gets injured a couple of times early doors and struggles to get fit and motivated. Maybe the lad gets a bit down about it all, struggles to enjoy his work (unlike the paragons of office virtue on OWTB of course), struggles to cope with the first major set-backs of his career, his performances drop and he finds himself in an unhappy situation. Now, if we substitute the name "Keiran Lee" into the above, then you'd say that he must have some talent so we should try our damnedest to get it out of him. He's human, and he's struggling at work. Everyone has been there, so why don't we have a bit of empathy and maybe get behind him for a season and give him a chance? Then, if we get nothing back he's out of contract at the end of the season so he leaves.

It looked that way to me, but the subtlety was obviously an emoticon too far for some hysterical Yonners! As for :censored: - good game and a great engine. Dangerously similar to last season though in that our centre-mids today were a bit too similar, despite neither playing badly. :censored:'s not a play-maker and (as has been discussed elsewhere) we looked a little toothless without fit / firing wingers for the workers to cycle the ball out to. MOM has to have been Abbott - oozed quality.

How I did it I don't rightly know, but I'd managed to block the miss by Parker out of my mind... I'm not a fan of KP in the slightest and I was annoyed when we signed him, but looking past that there are a couple of questions to which we need answers. The guy is supposed to be lightning quick, but he looks stockier than I remember and their full-back had him for pace every time. The worrying thing with the miss was that there seemed no urgency to put it away - his touch was sloppy and the finish lazy. Looking at the team I think we need to be aware that this is going to be a tough season. Defence today was poor, and anyone who seriously thinks Gregan did okay should probably see a psychiatrist. Both him and Hazell gave the ball away sloppily in dangerous areas, and got rolled by the strikers far too easily. In fact, while Hazell's calamities were shown up in more focus I seem to remeber him bailing Gregan out with covering tackles at least twice. Brill looks underwhelming and I don't rate Gilbert at all. :censored: has a great engine but aside from the goal I don't recall much quality from him - not saying he was poor but just not a stand-out performer (albeit you need guys like that in a team). I don't want to write the season off, but I do think we need to approach this season with an eye on the future. We've got too many problems to challenge effectively in my opinion, so we need to find a way of making the most from the year - in my mind that means; - get Fleming back, and install him as number 1 - start looking for a young centre-back to build our defence around - give Jacobsen, Stephens, Lee, Brooke and Rowney game time I've said it before but it bears repeating - too much chopping and changing doesn't help the team in the close season. All it does is leave a squad with too many average players like Gilbert or Byfield. Get a plan in place for next year and build the nucleus of a team that can move forward. My biggest concern is that I cannot see what DP's strategy for the club looks like - we seem to have drifted into this season a bit and if we let that continue then the chances are any issues will just reappear next year in a slightly different guise.

Joke perhaps?

I don't like jumping on bandwagons, but I have to today - thought Brill was really poor. What on earth he was doing with the two throw-ins is beyond me, and as for the goal he was out of place. Abbott looked quality all day long, easily the best player on the park - aside from that little to shout about; - distribution was too often rushed and not accurate - defence looked poorly co-ordinated and uncertain - Gilbert looks poor - Brill is poor - Parker looked slow, no sign of life and offered little - Taylor is obviously unfit - liked :censored:'s work ethic but the midfield did too little to help the defenders, let Swindon keep the ball bouncing around in our half rather than theirs We need a new left-back, and I'd like to see Holdsworth replicate that second-half form for the whole 90 minutes because in the first his distribution was haywire. Good to see Keiran Lee get a game.

While I have doubts about O'Grady's goal-threat, from what I've seen of him comments about his touch are way off line. He's always looked to have a decent touch, a bit of skill and good hold up play - his issue was that the areas of the pitch that he occupied weren't those from which he was ever going to score. That said though, he played up top with Hughes who never passed and one of his 3 starts was Burnley away and he played up front alone. I feel very aggrieved for the lad because he was never given a fair chance here. Compared to Alessandra who likewise doesn't score yet has been given loads, I'd almost say he should be considering legal action for bullying in the work place. Being a good striker takes experience, and O'Grady could have learned to get himself into more dangerous areas. I can't say that I'm glad to see that back of him because Byfield and Alessandra are no better and yet have been given far more opportunities. A poor decision in my opinion.

Too easy to be so blunt pal, you've got to offer something else, and a valid reason. The post-code means bugger-all; Flintshire has a Chester post-code yet is in a different country. Failsworth has some great points - transport being a major one. However, there are major issues as well and I'm not a fan of it truth be told. For all that though it is a bit "toys out of pram" to start saying that you'd not go because of it - if the club is dying because of the costs of maintaining BP then they have to move and attractive sites aren't that common. Breeze Hill would be a bad site for a stadium - worse than Failsworth for my money. I think the best place still has to be the Royton / Shaw end of town - how about knocking down some of those empty mills or renovating one to be an arena that celebrates Oldham's under-appreciated global heritage in the cotton industry. Imagine a ground which has one stand formed out of an old mill - that'd be unique!

To be fair there are more than a couple of worries that I'd have about Latics at the minute - quite apart from the horrendous Eardley sale... Leaving that bone of contention to one side though; if you'd asked opinions and predictions before the season I'd have said that we had a decent squad, but we were short one centre-half. I like elements of Gregan's game, and I love Hazell's attitude and commitment - but they don't make a defensive partnership. I'd argue that Stam was the key to the defence the season that Gregan was injured, which is the last time we looked consistently solid. :censored:, Byfield and Parker. Three signings that I'm not too enamoured of, not because they're poor players, but because I don't see that any of them really enhance our team beyond what we had in place. I'd trade all three of them for a good centre-back. Also, as for winning grittily - we aren't going to do it without width. I doubt Furman is a play-maker; it seems much more likely that he is high quality runner who at this level has the confidence and ability to want the ball and to cycle it on through the team. Most teams are good enough to nullify that sort of play by packing the midfield and the area in front of the back 4, and that is where you need a winger to stretch them out, preferrably with an overlapping full-back. We surely have enough options to give width a chance even now too? Lee can play (and should get a run for my money), O'Grady can play wide-left at a push (and is another overdue a chance, even though I have doubts about his effectiveness), Parker could operate wide as part of a three man frontline... There are options there, and I don't want another Shez era where we get scared to change it up and end up limping into mid-table.

To be fair though, anything that goes wrong for Neil Warnock is a blessing. The bloke is the most obnoxious person in the media outside of the axis of evil that is Clarkson and Piers Morgan. Surely with these; they are aggravating and I'd be spewing if it happened to us, but the result is no different in any way to a goal ruled out incorrectly for off-side - which happens far more frequently. The fact that the ball crossed the line is immaterial, but makes it seem more straight-forward. All that is at issue is that a team has scored and it hasn't registered - really not any different to a player being wrongly flagged, or having a dodgy foul given against him. Likewise, it is the opposite of (but no worse than) when someone actually scores and it shouldn't have been allowed - by dodgy pen or a foul in the build-up etc etc. Footy has got dozens of injustices just waiting to pounce on any team at any time and Warnock is just a spoilt child who hasn't got the manners or grace that he was born with. It happened to Southampton at the Dell when Hughes hit the hoardings around the pitch through the net and it bounced back in, but I don't recall anyone calling for capital punishment and mass dismissals then. Warnock - what a dick. These happen about once every decade so why waste the money for goal-line technology? If a team gets relegated it is because they have been guff all year and not because they suffered one injustice.

I don't know if I could face it. I mean, what new scam can those malicious reprobates at the FA come up with to keep the soul of football (Neil Warnock) down?

Got to be taken seriously - get guys like O'Grady and Smalley a game while still playing 6 of your regular first XI. Also it has been pointed out that teams that do well in this are generally teams that go well - whether that is just because they are the better sides though is open to debate.

Slightly off-piste with this comment, but how far out of line was Warnock with his comments after the game? What a tool... Considering that Yeovil are the only team that I have ever seen allow the opposition to walk up the pitch and score to equalise a game, it is highly ironic that Johnson's the man now being labled a cheat and a bad sport. Also, is it just me or are these unfeasible gigantiforously horrific incidents that require the whole footballing world's attention and the reinventing of the wheel more common these days? And is it just me or do they only ever happen to Warnock's sides? And, crazy as it sounds, could there be a positive link with this exponential increase, their prediliction for affecting Warnock's clubs, and the arch-nob's appearance as a newspaper columnist? What a bell-end he is, I wish he could be muzzled.

Undoubtedly the most soul-destroying bit of transfer business so far, and I was disgusted at the signing of Keigan Parker so it must be pretty bad. In my deepest, darkest nightmares - the sort where you wake up thinking that we've resigned Gregan or loaned out a promising young keeper for a naff one - I didn't think it could come to this. Eardley was the best talent we had at the club. A more complete player than Taylor, a full international and an ex-captain with appearances to burn in the bag. How did we go from "Captain Eardley" who loved it, to this :censored:ty business in about two years? Any fan who seriously thinks he was gash is an idiot, and anyone not devastated by the low fees we're talking about is a moron - there can be no two ways about this. If we did get £600k then I could just about take it, but if we got over £300k then I'll be astonished. This is my lowest ebb as an Oldham fan. And I watched us lose 4-0 away at Tranmere with Eardley & Taylor sent off.

Laughable - do any of those with the clappy hands emoticon really believe Chester purely down to an inability to score? Amusing that the target of the post was Latics fans who peddle easy cliches, and then you go and ignore all the underlying issues surrounding the player to make a point.

If we have really sold Eardley for £300k then I'm just glad that I'm not going today. What a load of utter tripe. Have we seriously just sold a 19yr old who has Wales caps, has captained the team and racked up over a hundred appearances, for a pittance and replaced him with a Huddersfield reserve? Have we seriously just signed Darren Byfield? What the hell is going on?!

Barry, As I understand it are you not the supporters mouth-piece on the board through the Trust? If so, then I would have thought that for those fans who you deem apathetic / uninterested / lazy / tight-fisted you are proving to be a poor one. This debate is about everyone, and regardless of the attendance I would expect my representative as a fan (as I understand it, that is you) to carry ALL the supporters concerns into this meeting. I must confess I wasn't aware of the location, timing or charge and even had I been I would not be able to attend. In my stead, I will expect you to take my concerns to the meeting and set them before the club's representatives. I do not feel it is your place, or anyone else's for that matter, to come onto a forum and criticise fans who in many cases have plowed thousands of pounds into the club over the years, over their non-attendance of a forum. Nor do I think it appropriate that you single out the comments supporting your own thoughts for praise on this site. I do feel it is your responsibility to be aware of the concerns surrounding the capacity (which I don't share), and the location of the ground (which I increasingly do share), and to carry those to the decision makers. There are a number of threads you can research to gauge opinion, and I sincerely hope you will do so.

I feel like a bit of a bully, given the abuse that these posts usually get, but I can't help but disagree here I'm afraid Corp. Not against your doom and gloom in general, but that comment above is a bit cheap and far too easy. You say that our constant "seasons of progression" have brought the club down, but how can going into administration and nearly out of business be seriously considered progress? I'd suggest that Latics have actually been in a cycle of boom and bust, and that there's been no consolidation or building year on year. Just look at the player turn over that we've had over the last 4 seasons - it has been ridiculous. We've got a good youth system, and a bit of money to spend so if we took a 2 or 3 year stance and decided to assemble a team organically then there is no reason that we shouldn't see success. Too many instances of 8 or 9 changes a summer is the problem in my eyes.