Steve_R

So what you are saying is that no team in the bottom two divisions should allow Huddersfield to score, yet they're in second place in League 1 at the moment.

Not all of them, Max.

Seeing as two of TTA have jumped ship and the other doesn't sound that far away from joining them, who' s going to pay for this new stadium?

David Brierley & Co sold BP to Oldham Council to save the club from going under. The amount it was sold for was to clear the debts, pay off the bank, taxman etc. It wasn’t sold for the market value, just to get us out of the :censored:. The deal was that OAFC could buy it back at the same price. TTA exercised that right, thus getting their hands on a prized piece of land at a good value. If any investor is thinking of buying the club they don’t have that option. They’ll have to negotiate a deal with Blitz and Gazal. Now I don’t know what their intentions are, but anyone looking at buying the club will probably have to pay a lot more for it than they did for a club still running up heavy losses in a dilapidated ground (far worse that 7 years ago) with a dwindling fan base of around 4k and falling. I’m not knocking TTA here. They came in and had a go, but if we don’t get a new or improved stadium, and are left in a ramshackle BP with no improvements, losing money hand over fist and supporters at an alarming rate, they’ll have failed, and left us in a worse state.

When TTA bought us they bought the club from the Administrators. After the CVA and the beginning of OAFC (2004) Ld we were then debt free. We were averaging crowds of 6,500 and had a four sided football ground. Two of TTA have already left us and if a new stadium doesn’t happen I’d say we’re in a lot worse position than they found us.

You only have to think back to last season and Keiran Lee. Penney made him available and told him he didn't feature in his plans, (and before this turns into Penney bashing, not many disagreed with him at the time). Whether he got offers or not I don't know but he didn't go anywhere, bided his time, eventually got in the team and the rest, as they say, is history. Players will look after their own interests first, and much as I'd like them all to bugger off, I can't really blame them.

My fears are the same as yours. I’ve always worried what would happen if the sums didn’t add up, i.e.; if the sale of BP brings in a lot less than Failsworth will cost, but now the owners have lost interest my worries are ten-fold. Nobody knows what Blitz and Gazal’s intentions are, but when the official statement when they stood down said they’d ‘severed all ties’ with the club not long after they assured us they were going nowhere, I find it hard to see a happy outcome to all this. Especially when the questions keep going unanswered.

But are they interested whether it’s an attractive investment or not? As it stands they could sit tight, rake back their money by selling off BP and let those still running the club worry about its long term future. Or they could sell BP, spend another £20 million on the new stadium and everything else, and still be in a position of trying to flog a football club no one may want to recoup some of their losses.

I asked the question a couple of times to Barry Owen on another thread but he hasn’t answered it yet. That is ‘Who is going to fund the new stadium? The original idea was that it is to be funded from the sale of BP, but the people who own BP have done one, so are they really likely to build a stadium for a club they have ‘severed all ties with?’ And if they’re not, then who the hell is?

So how come Failsworth School have a link up with Man City. Or is Failsworth in Manchester?

So have Blitz and Gazal ‘severed all ties’ with the club or not? I know they still own the club, but that appears to be only because they can’t sell it, as Barry has mentioned ‘new investment will see a transfer of shareholding in the club’. But the football club and the land it sits upon are two different things. If they can’t sell the club, are they still going to sell of BP, bit by bit or whatever, and pour the profits they make off it into building a new stadium for a club they no longer wish to be involved with?

Barry Can you explain one thing? The option the redevelop Boundary Park is no longer deemed suitable and its Failsworth or bust apparently. The reason given for this is to fund a new development we need to sell BP in its entirety. Yet the owners of BP (Blitz and Gazal) have ‘severed all ties with the club’ (official website quote). So if/when BP is sold, the money received for it will not be going into OAFC’s coffers as I see it. Who then, is going to pay for this new development at Failsworth, as the men with the money will have sailed off into the sunset with it?

We’re a poorly supported club stuck in the third division. We’ve been marooned here for 14 years and have shown precious little sign of getting out of it. Whether we like it r not were lumped in with clubs like Hartlepool, Walsall, Orient, Tranmere, Yeovil, Rochdale etc, all of whom get similar crowds to ourselves (or even worse). Most of the clubs at the lower end of the of the attendance scale have at least had a promotion up to this league in recent years to cause a bit of excitement for their fans. We’ve had nothing bar a couple of failed play off attempts since we’ve been here. We came down to this level after being above it for roughly 25 years. The ground’s falling down, the proposed new stadium(if it ever happens) is in the most unpopular place it could be, the owners have buggered off and there is nothing coming out of the club to give any encouragement for what sort of future we may have. To the outsider/lapsed fan we are a club in a rut, going nowhere and heading there pretty quickly. A couple of encouraging early season results isn’t going to change that. The only thing that surprises me about how poor our crowds are is that people are surprised about how poor they are.

I'm sure they had a good look at those players first though, and didn't just sign them because they saw them once and they had a good game, when the rest of their career amounted to zilch. I've no problem with us taking a chance on someone unproven, but it always baffles me when people say 'Sign him up' after one viewing.

I didn’t go last night so I can’t really comment on this French lad, but it does surprise me that people seem instantly won over after one game. I was trying to find out a bit about his history and noted he signed for Hartlepool in September last year, after similarly impressing for their reserves, then went on to play for them once all season. He’s played for a couple of French clubs before that but I can’t find any appearance details, but I’ve never heard of either of them. At 27 he’s hardly set the football world alight. OK, I know that’s why he’s on trial here, but he may have just pulled out all the stops last night as many do when they’re trying to win a contract. Fair enough, you can only go off what you’ve seen, but if there is the remote chance that we could sign him (which I doubt given our financial position) I would hope they see a lot more of him rather than making a snap decision after one game, as some seem to be advocating.

Fitz didn't come through our Youths. We signed him form non league. Chesham I think, along with Wayne Andrews, where Dowie's brother was the manager,

I see Neil Eardley came on as a sub for Blackpool yesterday, which means that whatever anyone thinks of him, he is now officially a Premier League player. This got me thinking though. Who was the last player who played for us who came through our Youth set up and went on to play in the top flight? I mean someone who actually played in the first team, so that discounts Micah Richards, who was only here briefly and left when he was about 14 anyway. I'm sure there's someone obvious that has slipped my mind but the last one I can think of is Carl Serrant, which is a bloody long time ago really, Can anyone think of anyone else?

Not sure why people keep saying that it's a game we would have lost last season under Penney. Whilst we hardly scored last year we didn't concede many either, and for me it was a very similar game to last year. Yeovil looked neat and compact but rarely looked liked scoring (until near the end), but then again neither did we. If Penney was still in charge I'm sure the score would have been the same as last seasons fixture, 0-0.

I'm sat watching Sky Sports special and Dean Windass has just been on. Now he is bad.

One thing I've learn't in my 40+ years watching Latics is that no matter how bad we are, we can always get worse. We certainly can next year, we could be relegated for a start. Talbot, Moore and Penney didn't work. Well that's not surprising as they didn't get a chance. Given a decent amount of time who knows, but most fans decided within a couple of months they weren't for us and they were gone within a year. Dickov's main advantage is that expectations are pretty low this time round, but give it time. Unless he's given a good few years to build something (by the fans and the board), we'll probably be in the same boat in 12 months time, looking for manager no 10 in 10 years. Good luck Paul. You're sure as hell going to need it.

Just hope were not signing Holt because I doubt if Dickov (presuming it is him) has ever even heard of him let alone seen him play, so once again it would smack of 'someone else' getting too involved in our signings.

The thing about England this time is that for the first time I can remember we do have one of the geniune world class match winners in our side in Rooney. In the past we've always hyped up our main man or men way beyond their ability a la Beckham, Gerrard,etc, even going way back to the likes of Robson and Keegan. For me the only one to compare with him is Gascoigne, and he came from nowhere in 1990 and was never the same after that tackle in the 1991 FA Cup final. If everyone plays to their absolute maximum and Rooney is and can stay 100% fit then we have a chance, but I still feel we'll cock it up somewhere along the line and that Spain, Brazil and possibly Holland are better than us anyway.

I know there's probably been worse but three that really did my head in were Rob Scott, Michael Clegg and Steve Whitehall. Having said that Prozac's post has just reminded me of the recurring nightmares I used to have after swapping Ron Futcher for Ian Ormondroyd in 87 cost us any chance of promotion.

With the likes of Gannon, Bunn, Butt and Ardiles being mentioned, there's going to be a lot of people disappointed when they give the job to Martin Gray.

10-The position of the highest placed team we've beaten this season - Walsall Of the top six we've only scored against one of them - Swindon