Oh Heck C-Beck

I think it is the stagnation plus the revolving door policy of the current ownership. If relegation meant a change of direction, and we actually tried to put a plan in place in terms of manager and playing personnel I wouldn't be against it, or maybe something even bolder. Try and bring through more of our own players. I could definitely get behind that at whatever level we played at.

What do people really want from a football club? I think too many people concentrate on success these days. I'd rather have a club that gets involved with the local community wherever possible and has a system in place to develop its own players that the fans can develop an affinity with.

I think a new stadium would have given the club a fresh start it desperately needs. I don't think The Failsworth site was that far away from BP, so couldn't see us loosing too many life long fans.

Wasn't he also sacked at oldham?

I think Shez was the last manager to have a decent budget here and to be fair he bought in some decent players. He just didn't play any of them, which was quite baffling to me at the time. I wouldn't want him back here but good luck to him at Newport County..will always be a Latics legend

Imagine 36 years in league 2...

Seriously though, maybe if we stopped trying to tread water in this division and actually put a plan in place we might actually achieve something better in the long run.

I get the impression Rochdsle try and bring through young players (often released by other clubs) and sell them on. I'm sure it allows them to cover costs on smaller crowds. I'm also sure there is none of this league one of bust bollocks that is spouted by corney and some of our fans. It's only league one or bust because there is no plan and direction in place from the board. If we were committed to something more long term on the footballing side, I'm sure the fans could buy into it.

Instead we lurch from manager to manager and journeyman to journeyman. Which I'm positive leads to more and more people losing interest.

Edit to say, just had a look at their squad and it seems the majority of it has been in place for around two years. I'm sure this consistency along with the manager must help. Just wish we could find a manager to stick with through thick and thin.

Seriously, I'd rather watch exciting, enterprising, gung-ho football in a lower level than the absolute :censored:e we've been inflicted with for the best part of a decade. If that's in division four, or conference so be it.

 

Get a manager in who'll blurt 80% of our budget on two :censored:ing brilliant wingers, a target man who''ll put 20 goals a season away and pick two absolute clod-hoppers at the back who'll play for a pie and a pint. It'll be mint.

100% this. After stagnating for so long, I just want to see some entertaining attacking football back at the club. I couldn't give a :censored: about the level.

I'm pretty sure every preseason we have loads of trialists playing that we never go on to sign so I don't see why this one is any different under DK. I'm also pretty sure we rarely have our best team in place when the season starts, so again no different to usual. Finally I'm pretty sure we've had some decent preseason results in the past and gone on to be :censored:. Really worthless to speculate at the moment. Let's see what's happening in a few months time before worrying

Got to say I'm a tad surprised that some people are quite so excited about a kid who spent last season playing in a side that dropped out of the football league. Good luck to him though; I hope he's a great signing.

Pre season is the time to get excited as you don't know who might turn out to be good or :censored:.

Edit to say let's be realistic, we'll only ever fluke promotion if boys like green turn out to be as exciting as we think! Positive mental attitude!

10 - 12 minutes would be great, i'd definitely sign up again for that as an exile. I hope they will work towards showing the whole games eventually.

I quite like the colours and kit design. I think it's the sponsor and new badge that make it look tacky. I don't hate the new badge but I'm not a big fan of it's shape and size, and the sponsors logo is just awful and far too big. Having said all that in the pictures it looks like the Sondico kits maybe of better quality than the previous manufacturers which can only be a good thing. I think I'll end up getting one of these.

Shocked to see this. How can they continue to get away with demonising football fans? They just treat people like kids!

I can only see this getting abused in many ways. For example, only being enforced by stewards on easy targets, like young lads not looking for trouble, rather than a bus load of Millwall hooligans.

It's also going to encourage larger amounts of binge drinking inside the grounds where alcohol is served. I expect it will also lead to people smuggling in stronger stuff like spirits to neck inside the ground if they can't buy alcohol or don't want to pay the prices.

We should become a "sports club" similar to how a lot of Spanish clubs operate.

 

The football club is the behemoth but they have a basketball team, handball, all sorts.....

 

I do a bit of running but not enough to join Royton Road Runners or similar - if there was an OAFC running club I'd pay to join and pay for the blue running vest with our badge on.

 

Despite all the good work the Community Trust do why aren't hundreds of kids (male & female) taking part in football training with an Oldham Athletic Juniors instead of Heyside Jrs, Chaddy Park Jrs, Santos etc....?

This would secure many future fans and involve lots of parents with the club NOW who wouldn't otherwise ever go to a game or pay any attention to us...

 

Give one free ticket every season and some free advertising to bars or restaurants willing to give 10% discount to season ticket holders, or members....

The "OAFC Card"

I like these ideas especially becoming a sports club as it brings people on from across the community:

I think this is a very interesting topic that deserves more discussion at clubs like Oldham. How long can we go on treading water in this division waiting for a rich benefactor before everyone gets bored, or we finally run out of luck like Tranmere.

I think it would be great to have something else in place for fans to identify with and rally around on top of the faint hope of success. For me that would be a full focus on bringing through our own players. I've got tired of the conveyor belt of journeyman and all the bull:censored: that goes with it. I'd love to support a team where the fans can build up a real rapport with players again been if they aren't all that successful.

I filled in a questionnaire and mentioned making the RRE the home end so I guess we were consulted.

If you really stop going because you can't sit in the chaddy then I really don't think you can say you are a fan of OAFC. You surely must be a fan of sitting in the chaddy at 3pm every other Saturday and the occasional weekday evening.

That's not to take anything from the past. The Chaddy will have provided a great deal of fantastic memories for many people. On a personal level I'll never forget a lot of days out in that stand. I had a season ticket in there for around ten years

However I think it's about time the club made the switch. There is no debate when it comes to the view and acoustics, the RRE is better and that can only hand a positive impact when it comes to attracting new fans, regardless of tradition. Time to move on to a new chapter.

FWIW I'm fairly certain I completed that survey, but I don't recall being asked about moving home fans from the Chaddy. As a Main Stand ticket holder I may not have been asked, but as someone with a postgrad qualification in survey methods, that is not the best way to conduct a survey as you need people in rough equipoise to complete it as much, if not more than those who are biased.

To be fair there were a few open ended questions on the survey asking for opinions on how the club could improve the match day experience. I could be wide of the mark but maybe a lot of people who completed the survey mentioned making the RRE the home end.

We can obviously only speculate as the results haven't been disclosed, but I can imagine a lot of younger fans possibly favouring a switch and being more likely to fill in an internet survey.

In my opinion they should have switched ages ago. A good move if they have finally decided to make the RRE the home end behind the goal.

I think it's just silly to analyse something that becomes a goal like that. Like someone said above, if he never passes and always :censored:s up his shots and dribbles over a long run of games fair enough. But one tiny split second decision in one game that may not have even led to a goal. It's meaningless.

If you always played the percentages would we have any of the amazing goals we all love in football? That's why it's brilliant. You can have all the tactics, training and percentages in the world and still lose because of a great bit of skill or bad luck!

Having watched the goal the pass to Winchester only seemed on for a very split second anyway. The defenders could have easily intercepted it. Well done Turner, cracking goal.

 

They are by no means certain to go up, if not the struggle continues and they might finish up like Stockport.

Maybe, but they then football is all about maybes. I wouldn't be surprised if Stockport were to make it back into the football league one day either.

True but Grimsby are now fighting for promotion back into the football league. And who knows if they do that they may fight for promotion back to League 1.

It is a difficult situation. I think success can obviously have a positive impact on how many people go to watch the team but I also feel it is the merry-go-round of players and managers that makes it easy for people to walk away. We no longer have the time to build up affinity with those we go to support, especially when there are very few home grown players successfully making the grade.

I still believe many people go to watch football because they enjoy watching football, not just to see success. However, when the players and managers change so frequently its harder to care about them, therefore success becomes more important.

Let's face it we've been pretty dire for a while, we might as well be entertaining and dire!

I'm not a big fan of going back to a previous manager, but if we had to I wouldn't begrudge Dowie having another shot.

I think the best chance of genuine success is to get lucky with a rookie manager. But in reality I don't really care any more. We go through too many managers. I would just like a manager who enjoys managing the club, tries to improve the team and bring through a few youth players into the first team.

Haha it was always going to go wrong after this thread wasn't it!

Didn't quite realise how strong a team Preston have. They have a very strong bench compared to ours.