Steve_R

Jesus Christ! I've heard some one eyed bollocks in my time but to practically say 'take away their three goals and they didn't have a shot on tareget' takes the buscuit. They were better than us and there's not really any disgrace in that, but we're always likely to let in goals and unless we learn how to start scoring there will be a lot more frustrating Saturday afternoons to come.

The best I've ever heard TTA describe our budget as was top ten. As we finished 6th, 8th and we're 8th when he was sacked I don't think it can be said that he was/is a poor manager. He did OK, could have done better but could have done a whole lot worse. Corney seems to say what suits him at the time. It was him who started the 'botton four budget' talk last season in an interview in 442. Then when everyone else starts mentioning it it became a top ten one. The club was apparently the farthest away from administration in our division not long ago, then we're dead in five years if we don't move to Failsworth, then at the forum, we'll still survive at BP but with hefty cut backs. Now apparently our budget is bigger than last years after being told there had been a reduction. Anyway. people will always disagree on former manager and players (or even current ones). I suppose something had to be done to halt the slide we were in, and Penney's in charge now and if everybody backs him I'm sure we'll find him to be a good 'un. Whether he can take us up time will tell, but he'll have to do it quickly or the natives will soon be on his back.

Just to put all this capacity talk into perspective, Brighton, who can't fill their 8,000 capacity ground are moving to a new stadium that will hold 20,000, and tomorrow's opponents Southend, who average around 7,500, having been given planning permission to build a new stadium with a 22,000 capacity. I'm sure their more sensible fans will be up in arms at them wasting all that money on a load of empty seats. Or will they see it as a sign that their club obviously wants to go places?

So you didn't like Moore from day one but that's OK, but anyone who's not taken to Penney is blasted by you. How does that work? I'm completly behind Penney and feel IF given the time he could do a great job for us, but I've been all for giving every manager time (ie years, not months). Yet you're having a pop at everyone who it would appear feels the same way about our current incumbent as you did about Ronnie without giving either of them a chance.

Yes, but when we move to Failsworth we are going to 'market' the club to the people there. And it will happen, because 'Alan' said so at the forum.

Yet Simon Corney at the recent forum stated that our playing budget for last year was between 1.5m/1.6m. Maybe they don't talk to each other, but they can't both be right.

The most incredible bit I heard was when Phil Thompson was describing the first pitch invasion as he was covering it on Sky Sports, and he said that one West Ham fan ran up to Carlton Cole, put his arm round him and tried to have his picture taken with him!

But you did. Think before yous speak, or post, ***********.

We've never marketed it to the people of Oldham so we're not going to do it anwhere else. It really made me laugh when Hardy said at the forum that moving to Failsworth would give us a new area of fans to target. Why the hell haven't we been targetting them for the last 20 years or so then. After all, it is apparently part of Oldham. The marketing strategy in Failsworth would simply be 'plonk a new ground there, and hopefully some new people will come along.' Unless there's a fundamental change in the way the club is run from top to bottom, it won't matter where the new ground is or what these supposed 'additional revenue streams' are. We'll just struggle on regardless.

Why are you so obsessed with what the Corp thinks?

Is it just me or didn’t anyone else think that when SC was pressed by that guy from Failsworth Dynamos about whether he was involved in the club just to make money and he replied that he was, that he was just being sarcastic? With the figures he gave out, although just off the top of his head, about how much TTA have already spent and what the current site at BP is worth, I fail to see how they’ll walk away with a nice personal fortune when it’s all done, and I’m sure he said as much. There’s still a lot of unanswered questions. These ‘increased revenue streams’ we keep hearing about seem very vague, the location is a big worry, and for every new stadium that’s worked there’s another one that’s either failed or had little impact on the clubs fortunes. Our plan seems to me more of a case of ‘ this is the only way we can survive’ more than ‘ this is how we can prosper’. The locals don’t seem happy (and in all honesty they do seem to have a point) and it looks like a long, tricky road ahead if it is to go through. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if in 12 months time we hear they’ve ‘revised their plans’, but I’m just not as convinced as some that TTA will walk away with a nice butty at the end of it all.

After one game? Early on last season Whitaker was better than Wellens according to a poll on here, Carry on discussing,

Seeing as Stockport hardly attacked I could have looked good at right back today and I'm the most left footed player ever (and not a very good one at that). If we offered them £200k for him I'd doubt they'd except, yet we've just let Eardley go for that, less Wrexham's cut.

The thing is they signed Charlie Adam from Rangers earlier in the week and the fee on their website is quoted at £500k. I can't see how they'd be happy for that to be bandied about but want the lid shut on how much they paid for Eardley. It's not just Latics as most clubs seem to do it nowadays, but this 'undisclosed fee' is another thing about football today that really narks me off. Anyway, good luck to the lad. I really, really hope he goes on to prove a lot of people here wrong.

I don't know if anyone's got last night's Chron to hand but that looks suspiciously like the review in their Latics pre season pull out.

All hypothetical this and probably a pipe dream but here goes: Say the new ground plans haven’t been announced yet but will be unveiled in twelve months time. This season Penney gets us playing some great football and we have a really good challenge for promotion (that lasts the course this season). At the business end of the season we’re right in the thick of it with a chance of automatic promotion, and the last few games attract crowds of, say 7,000-7,500 Latics fans. We just miss out on an automatic place, but end up winning the play offs with 25,000 fans cheering us on at Wembley. Season tickets sales for the next season are double the normal, Burnley are back down, Leeds have gone up with us and we’ve games against Preston, Newcastle, Sheff Utd & Wednesday etc to look forward to and Latics finally look to be on the up. Then the new plans are released. Would everybody still be happy at a 12,000 capacity?

If Darlington and Rotherham hadn't had points deducted Shrewsbury would have finished ninth in Div 4 last season. Whoopy do, is that what we're aiming for. They actually finished seventh in their last season at Gay Meadow and lost in the play off final, so it's not quite as rosy as you're painting it

I'm right with you on this one. There's no way I can see it happening but even if it's the tiniest idea from the least important member of the decision making it needs stamping out right now. I'm hardly enthralled by the plans as it is but I'm sure there's plenty more details to come to win me round, but if they take Oldham out of Latics then they will take Latics out of me.

Probably because, despite the angelic reputation he's somehow acquired, he's a dirty and cynical player himself. Absolute quality, but he knows exactly what he's doing with those supposed mis-timed tackles that he never seems to get a shred of criticsm for.

It's not really a simple question. I don't want us to sell him as I reckon he's a cracking little player, as do plenty of others not connected with this club as he's regularly scouted and linked with a move away, made the league one team of the year, welsh caps etc. However I think to truly advance he needs to leave, not just to play for a bigger club but to get away from those neanderthal fans of ours who love to barrack him at the slightest opportunity, so if the price is right I'd sell him and wish him all the best for the future, as I'm sure he'd flourish elswehere.

Really? Well if you're from Failsworth I'll bow to your superior knowledge but from my experience virtually everyone I know from there (and I know a few) vehemently deny any association with Oldham unless they're from their originally. They probably do class themselves as Failsworthians first, but virtually to a man and woman will see themselves as Mancs before Oldhamers. Try as a might I just can't class that area as Oldham. It's JUST inside the Failsworth border and is surrounded by Moston on one side and Newton Heath the other, and not many of them class themselves as Oldhamers I can assure you. There will be a lot of local opposition to building it there, because basically, whatever some GMC bureaucrat decided when they re-jigged the boundaries, it isn't in Oldham.

So it's whoever was the manager at the time at West Brom who was ultimately responsible for Hughes killing someone and ending up in the nick. Come on. A grown man should be responsible for his own actions, and after what he's done Hughes should live his life as whiter than white,not spend it out on the piss because nobody stopped him. No matter how good he is at football he's a buffoon, and I for one will be seriously hacked off if we end up giving him another deal.

We can't get out of this league, yet all we seem to want to do is re-sign players that were part of teams that couldn't get out of this league. I'm baffled.

2005/06 Yeovil at home first game, Scunthorpe at home last.

The last four season's have seen us finish 10th,6th,8th and 10th, but two managers have been sacked because it's been deemed not to be good enough (with Sheridan being axed the minute we dropped out of the play offs). This would suggest that anything less than a serious bash at the play offs at least would see Penney sweating at the end of the season. Personally I don't expect much next year, but then again I rarely do. I just hope Penney gets the time to build his squad that could ultimately get us out of this Division. It will probably take time ie: years not months, but patience seems to be a virtue in short supply at Boundary Park. As for the original question, success is promotion. Making steps towards that goal by having a reasonable season (say finishing in the top half) will only ultimately be a success if thev manager is allowed to build on it and not removed/hounded out because that one season is not good enough.