Steve_R

Chadderton,Royton and Shaw are Latics hotbeds,even the diehards originally from Westwood,Northmoor and Glodwick all live in these areas now.

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?

In some respects, particularly the state of the ground, you have a point.

 

Although my point is that ground wasn't even ours before they bought it. (Yes, technically it still isn't, please let's not go back around that circle...)

 

What would have happened if they hadn't bought the club? Who knows. Someone else may have done in the end and we could be better or worse off for it. Or we could have gone under.

 

TTA came in looking for a cure to a disease that had already nearly killed us. They didn't find a cure, but they did spend lots of money on respite drugs to ease the symptoms and delay the progress of the disease.

 

The drugs don't work any more and we're now in terminal care, waiting to die in the faint hope a miracle cure will appear from somewhere over the horizon before it's too late.

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.

 

That really is comical.

 

Asset stripped??

 

WHAT f*cking assets?!

 

The only assets connected to this club are assets TTA paid for. This is why I don't understand the vehemence against them. The very WORST they can do is leave the club in exactly the state they found it - it's financially impossible for them to leave us in a worse state than that.

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.

That unfortunately is what I happen to believe is our future.........the glass half empty view that i have is that once the loans have been called in & recouped by Blitz & Gazal after the sale of land at BP; that's it – they’re offski; and we're left as just a football club with a name; a sprinkling of players and no home to play at.

If (and it’s a massive ‘if’ as far as I can see) OAFC is still afloat after that period; we’ll be a nomadic club playing at whichever local (ish) grounds will have us. Take your pick from Spotland, Gigg Lane, or at that stage of affairs; grounds of a capacity of the likes of Hyde United, Staylebridge et all might just suffice.

Doom & gloom that may just be; but it’s what I happen to think is the likely outcome.

 

2 US / Cockney Businessmen with no prior discernable links to the club or area will surely want to recoup their outlay as quickly & seamlessly as possible surely; wont then want to plough back in said money & wait around an indeterminable amount of time for an investor to come in & buy the club and new ground as a package. As soon as the sale of the land at BP generates any semblance of money back for them; they’ll be off quicker than you can say ‘Keigan Parker missed the odd 1-on-1’.

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.

Which is the only way OAFC will change ownership. Nobody is going to touch Oldham Athletic (2004) AFC on its own. The club would have to come with the land at Failsworth at the very least in order to make it an attractive investment to anyone.

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?

Unfortunately Middleton comes under Rochdale and as such we cant work there same with other areas. Football in the Community programmes have always agreed they wont work on another clubs patch.

 

 

 

Whilst not ideal it does sometimes work in our favour. This agreement means that City in the Community and the United Foundation have not yet ventured into Oldham and on occasions in the not to distant pass where there have been opportunities for them to, a little reminder of this unwritten rule has prevented it which is good news for us!

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?

Our owners have had little encouragement or support from the official bodies involved with the new development and it is only recently that the Council appears to realise that Oldham Athletic needs a new home. Like it or not Boundary Park does not cater for a matchday experience

Barry

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.

Who would have bought a striker with a record of 4 years at St Albans and Arsley Town scoring only 19 goals in 99 games, or a stiker who scored only 17 goals in 114 games over a 6 year period at Leyton Orient, Grays and Aldershot ?

Yet Peterborough took a chance on Craig Mackail-Smith and Aaron McLean who have been prolific goalscorers for them since.

Statistics can be compelling, but are not the only way to judge a player.

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 hall

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.

Opinions, opinions, opinions eh?

 

You’ll never please everyone with any appointment; whoever was brought in; some would find fault whilst others proclaim them a good signing.

 

I actually think that whilst this is a massive gamble; it’s actually quite a progressive appointment. We’ve tried the lower league ‘cloggers’ in Brian Talbort, Ronnie Moore & Dave Penney and they haven’t worked; not in the slightest in BT & DP’s cases.

Why not speculate with albeit a green behind the ears young manager? Right now; you’ve got to say we have nothing to loose really? Disaffected fan base; crumbling ground, poor squad etc – it can’t really go any worse than it already is can it? The only way to go for us right now is up; because we really can’t any worse than we havonto our players then we are bound to see an improvement over last season surely?

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

Thers should be an option 'It doesn't matter who gets it. They won't get given the time by either the fans or the board and will be gone in twelve months anyway unless they can lead us to promotion playing all out attacking, sexy football.'