Steve_R

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.

Could be undisclosed at either end, so maybe they don't want it known how much money they were throwing about.

 

 

I think the best way of finding out maybe Wrexham fans who may get in the know with the sell on clause.

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?

FFS! Do me a favour.

 

One moaning git who can type is suddenly a messiah and the font of all knowledge regarding new stadia.

 

You guys concentrate on one fan who's deserted and I'll look at the facts. Since leaving Gay Meadow they've finished in their highest league position since god knows when and their average attendance has risen by just short of 1,000! And to boot, get this, they've a higher average attendance than us!!! (Watch it TTA, build a flat-pack footy stadium and face the wrath of the 1,000's of loyal Latics fans, we'll vote with our feet I tell thee! What do you mean you won't notice?)

 

And that lifeless stadium in Shrewsbury saw 14 home wins and only 3 home defeats last season.

 

I'm sorry but this geek talks of the loss of the humour on the terraces. I feel any move to an all seater stadium and away from that shed Gay Meadow would have resulted in this. Gone are the days. Shame he only arrived in the 21st century in 2007. He also talks of it being cold and having over-zealous stewards. What a jockey.

 

He talks of Shrews, Col U and Cardiff...they came from horrible run down terraced grounds. We're coming from BP. We've already made that transition from the terracing. And what have we got? A lifeless s---hole! What have we to lose that we haven't already lost?

 

Anyway let me put the Britannia Stadium to you! What a lifeless stadium; freezing, wind-swept, and absolutely no character, not to mention miles away from anywhere. That's what I thought when I last went with Latics. What's happened since?

 

One of the best home records in the Prem and voted loudest/most hostile ground...or sommat like that.

 

Not done too badly have they?

 

Guys get a grip. It's embarrassing.

 

E4e

SADDO

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 just think all OLDHAM Athletic fans and supporters should be made aware of this idea that has been mooted by the club's hierachy and is being seriously considered to raise the club's profile, we need to make sure we can blow it away before it gets chance to become a reality. New Ground yes please, but not at the expense of nigh on 120 years of history and identity - Now that's a brand that can be sold if the club employed someone who knows his arse from his elbows!

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.

You are right LL I put that.

I will revise what I meant though, in view of what you have said. I think someone like Scholes is too cute for that, although I just would worry some really dopey player really went out to injure him, but that Keirean Lee is not adapting his game or capable of looking after himself in the way Scholes would.

Scholes has been up against some of the most dirty and cynical players, and coped very well so would not be phased by League One in terms of adapatability, but KL might.

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.

But would you be happy if it was on the Rochdale side of the border? It'd probably have to be Kingsway business park.

Would you rather that than in Oldham MBC at failsworth?

 

And just for info, I think most failsworthians see themselves as Failsworthians - not Oldhamers or Mancs, some see more affiliation to the Oldham side of things, others to the Manchester side.

 

And if we want to get more fans, we've tried the local Oldham people, and it doesn't seem to be working, so we're going to have to move towards an area where there are fewer current oldham fans - inevitably that's going to mean more "manc" fans, unless we move more than 20 miles!!

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.

I agree. We know he's no choirboy, but surely any manager doing his job properly, can get him to behave appropriately. That's why they are called managers.

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.

For any stat men ( ), when was the last time we started and concluded our season at Boundary Park? Usually home or away one or the other.

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.

It really does make me laugh when people compare Nick Barmby and Paul Scholes.

And for all this about the Div 3 hatchet men targeting him, if he ever did end up at this level it would be the other way round.

Every one has a love in with Scholes on here because he supports us (or at least he used to). But all this 'he can't tackle' bollocks that the Sky comentators come out with every time he scythes someone down is exactly that, bollocks. He knows exactly what he's doing, a great player but a dirty bastard to boot.

Anyway, he'll never play for us, but it wouldn't surprise me if he starts (and possibly ends) his managerial carreer here.

This is a good point. How many times in recent years have teams come to BP and kicked then shades of wotnot out of us for 90 mins and left with at least a point, sometimes 3. I remember Luton doing that exact thing a couple of seasons ago. Dirty team but was effective for them in that game. Still didnt help them in the end though. Last few seasons teams have come to BP to defend, hit us on the break and be physical and our players werent up for the fight. If DP can make us a physical side with a never say day attitude that would be good for me. Dowie, while having more cash, did this, especially on our travels and teams didnt like to play us because we were fit, motivated and physical.

 

Scunny have always been a bit like that and have reaped the rewards in this division. Plus having Hooper and Sharp in past years may have helped a little

If we start playing like that Luton side then I definately wont be looking forward to next season, no matter what results we get. Christ, Blackwell's tactics that night made Ronnie Moore look like Pep Guardiola.

A fit Byfield who could last 90 minutes would be an asset at this level.

 

When he was with us he was gone by the hour mark.

 

I seem to recall we drew most of the games he played!

We won four and drew four. Promotion form in my book. And as it happens, Hughes scored seven goals in those eight games.

Stats eh!

It didnt, but if you look at stats and stats alone it apparently did. I think if you look at the stats the only reason we dropped down the league like we did was Lewis being dropped

Stats can be manipulated in anyway anyone wants to use them. For example, Darren Byfield played eight games for us last season and was never on the losing side, but I've yet to hear one Latics fans say we should have kept him,

The thing is, since Sharp and upto Sheridan, every manager we've employed to get us out of this division has achieved at least one promotion with another club either before or since their time here. Yer apart from Dowie we've sacked every one of them with the vast majority of the fans approval at the time.

Lets hope Penney gets given the time and receives patience from the fans, but to be honest I won't be holding my breath.

Given the fact that Sale Sharks take 30% of all County transfers I doubt it's true, and if it was it's nothing special, lot's of managers have finders fee's for players they bring to the club and then sold on, Iain Dowie being one of them.

To be honest I’ve no idea whether it’s true or not and I’m not necessarily saying there’s anything wrong with it. It’s just what I’ve picked up off the County board. It would appear the 90% of them worship the ground he walks on whereas 10% have reservations about him and wish he would wind his neck in a bit.

I was just trying to give a reason why some people seem dead set against him, as those who are don’t seem to come up with anything more than ‘anybody but him!’

I'd very much doubt that considering their financial position.

Perhaps that's one of the reasons that their financial position is so dire.

With regards to Gannon, from what I’ve picked up of the Stockport message board it would appear that he’s on ‘allegedly’ on a very, very substantial salary, gets a cut of the transfer fee on all player sales and on gate receipts above a certain level.

He has, again allegedly, fallen out with the Trust, (who currently run the club) big style, refuses to speak to the Chairman, hasn’t attended a post match press conference for ages and refuses to even do his column in the club programme any more.

He’s very confrontational, has had a few run ins with the crowd when they’ve questioned his decisions, and it has been said that he wouldn’t get away with his antics with any other club board, but most of the fans love him and he plays up on this, knowing full well the board daren’t sack him or even criticize him no matter what he says.

On the playing side you can’t fault his achievements. He’s had success, his sides play good football and he has an uncanny knack of bringing through/spotting young players, developing them and in a few cases making County a fair few bob in the process.

But he seems a very complex character and I’m not sure how he’d get on with our own firebrand, Mr. Corney, or indeed the ‘Main Stand Massiv’ when he makes a substitution or tactical change they don’t agree with.

It could be interesting though.

Not that we should be bothered about non effort from people taking home money for running on grass for an hour a week.

No, my mistake, we should wrap him in cotton wool like a baby

 

'Sshhh its ok Neal, dont listen to them nasty people, you're a footballer and your immune from any responsibilities and anything you do wrong or cant be bothered doing is acceptable'.

I think there's a fair few players who you could lay that accusation at, but only one seems to get singled out continously stangely enough.

So there’s a rumour that a club from a higher division is interested in him and once again it becomes a ‘lets slag Eardley off’ thread.

I can’t believe the number of times his selection for his country is used as a stick to beat him with, and where has all this crap about his attitude come from?

Watching Latics recently has been pretty much watching a side low on confidence making a series of errors (OK, that’s the polite way of putting it). Most of these mistakes attract the odd comment, but the moment Eardley does anything remotely wrong a collective groan echoes round the ground and the tone is set for the rest of the afternoon.

I really hope he leaves in the summer for his own good. Hopefully we can make a few bob, he can get on with the rest of his career, and I won’t have to listen/read the inane drivel about him.

The only problem is a new target will be set up for the snipers to aim at.