IceStationLatic

Also hearing until the end of the season... If it's so someone else can take the job then, surely it would only make sense if it's Dowie - or someone totally off the radar that's tied up until then

Looks like it's Holden...incredible

Good post. Note how rugby - which could easily be simplified to 'run with it more or kick further up pitch (...get it forward!) and tackle harder (get into 'em) - has moved from the dugout to the box, with laptops etc also.

But is that coming from Corney's end, who I presume knows you pass the message on to here and is fairly savvy..? My info is from the other angle..but don't know how many have advanced so you could be right. 15-20 is still a short-list from 120 though!? Maybe we'll have a statement to say there's a short-list statement on the way... ;-)

We look like we've been trying to play like we were under LJ, the instruction manual passed to Dean. But it isn't tactics or Dean that's cost us. It's bad luck with injuries, being left with a dodgy keeper, a bad time to get Preston, but most critically players not being strong enough - mentally and physically - to deal with set pieces on match day. Holden said they've worked on them extensively in training. Defending them isn't rocket science. It's just pick a man and win your battle. He can't hold their hand across the white line. But the whole group is crying out for fresh leadership. That might help the defence, the goalkeeper. It might bring Philliskirk bsck to life. He needs a sorting out as he's on a longer deal and def with us next season. Nothing against Dean but, with the bad luck of a :censored: storm forming around us at the same time, he's found himself in very deep water.

Understand Yates and Sellars are among those to have made the short-list, the latter in line to be first-choice offer. Not sure about the grief with the former. Took Cheltenham to play-offs twice on a low budget. Proven at non-league too, so would have an eye for talent at that level which we need for finding and developing talent under radar. Was at Kidderminster and Cheltenham for quite a while, a good sign too. And we're suddenly against dossiers and qualifications, yet the managers with them are the ones succeeding in the game at present - and our recent manager, the most qualified we've had, took us higher than we've been (playing good football too) in recent times. It would be nice though to have a manager not planning his escape so soon after signing a long term deal - but the ffp rules evidently made him put himself and his managerial career first, understandably. If we slid down table and then L1 is stronger next season, and it's even harder for us to get good enough players to challenge with ambition as seems likely, he suddenly wouldn't have quite as much of the reputation as the next big thing. Sellars a good fit on paper. Qualified, experience of developing younger players (and contacts) at City, and working with older/reserve/fringe players at Wolves. Has worked close to quite a few managers, and as an ex-player should have quite a few club contacts also. Will have learned a fair bit. Ready to have first go at the top role.

And when we joined, to help us avoid relegation we had Smith, Baxter and Tarky....! He quickly got in K Smith too! I think LJ would have known how thin the squad was - we got lucky with injuries at the start of the season, and to be fair we capitalised a little bit, only to shaft ourselves with results against the bottom teams. Now we are threadbare, have some big teams to visit BP, and away games at lesser teams fighting for survival. Wilkinson and Winchester might miss a game or two with internationals? And Forte is unlikely to get through every Sat-Tue without being rested or potentially aggravating his knee. Wilkinson is still injury prone having only just returned also. We are in trouble, but at least most of the aggression and criticism was towards LJ yesterday rather than the players. We just need this team to maintain the belief enough just to nick a win, and quickly! Defeat on Tue, and things are spiralling very quickly.

It's centre-back where the worry is.... And our midfielders aren't the best in the air. We just have to ensure we don't concede any set pieces - then we might have a chance!

kean Kasunga, Lockwood, Sadler Brown Dieng Winchester Jones Philliskirk Forte Wilkinson Lopsided diamond with Brown pushing forward at every opportunity - I'm presuming Sadler won't have the legs to give us width so Jones/Mellor off bench slants left for cover, Forte can roam left and centrally. Philli replaces Poleon but leans inside with a left-drifting midfield and works with the over-lapping Brown. Both Philli and Forte work off Wilkinson centrally and try to create some through-ball magic via Winchester. what goals Philli has scored, quite a few have been from a right-sided position - and he created two at Dale from working that channel. He needs to be on the far post as an extra forward if ever, God forbid, we get the chance to swing a cross in from the left. Christ we're screwed...

We'll be looking for a manager that can bring through youngsters, pollish rough diamonds and make money via good coaching. It's the only sustainable model for us. Expensive loans and an attention-attracting manager isn't the way for us. We can't afford that gamble. Looking at Wolves, I know the facilities they have are Premier League class, and the wages aren't bad either, but they've brought through and improved a young talented squad last season and this season - while using their financial clout to also have some decent pricey signings around them (but they still will prob make money off Sako, Dicko and Afobe mind....). Sellars - five years an academy chief at Man City and U21s coach at Wolves this season - was a great bet at 50-1 a week ago......

I repeat, let's don't. It will just motivate their players and the negative atmosphere will drain ours.

Still in NY from what I've heard so no meeting in person... But if the Dowie stuff is so tenuous, it's hard to understand how his odds got so low, even shorter than LJ - after he'd already been chosen by Barnsley...

Dowie would lift the mood, and the crowd, more than most. I hope it's a swift appointment either way. Fear we've created an illusion of time. Understand we've got to make right choice with our resources. But the players will drift in limbo, and I reckon some of them are drifting already with one eye on where they'll be playing next season. But my main fear is that taking longer to decide, as the club drifts towards the dropzone, makes the job less desireable. Plus the play-off hopes drifting away with such a whimper could have a bad affect on next srason's gate, and the players we could attract in the summer. We need to finish as high as poss so that, with the stand, we look like a club with ambition. The really annoying thing, and it's worrying if this will be the hangover from this season, is the frustration of the play-off chase. Ppl saying they were always out if our reach is absolute rubbish. This was a relatively poor L1 this season, a real opportunity. And what's ultimately cost us this season isn't budgets or injuries, it's ourselves. If we'd even had a :censored:e record against the bottom four ( eight points out of 21?), not a horrific one, we'd be firmly in the play-offs. Poor managerial tactics, subs and formations have cost us on some occasions. But I think it chiefly points to what LJ highlighted just before he was off, mental strength. It's almost as if theres a psychological acceptance little Oldham, unlike 'big' Sheff U or even Barnsley ffs, can't do it. When these struggling teams play us - even if we're sixth, they've played against us like we're 16th. They haven't given us the 'respect' or don't have the fear of when they play a Sheff U or even Peterborough, even when those teams below us in the table and our away fans are just as loud. And our players - the way we've started the games seemingly in fear and unable to accept the pressure of us, for once, being expected to win - haven't been strong enough to deliver the composure required for our playing style. But in fairness to the players, the December blip and training ground talk and upheaval about both Ched Evans and LJ leaving has probably played a huge role in the slide of our season also. I hope a new man can spark a finish on a positive note. Sorry for the essay!

And throw in the fact that we give the away mob a 12th man with the acoustics...

Singing about Johnson will just spurr their fans and players on even more. Best tactic as said previously: no mention. Oldham songs all the way. All the noise needs to be backing the players LJ doesn't feel are good enough to make the next grade. He might well be right.....but we want to win so have to try and get that extra out of them.

Has to be punished appropriately, not get away with it with a slip on the wrist. Creates more problems further down the line. Suarez got away with misdemeanours but was 'protected'. Now he's an adult that bites ppl when the going gets tough mentally, but unfortunately they'd say he justified it as became a superstar. But others might not fulfil potential (partly for that reason) and then take those issues out into the real world...

When he was man of the match in several national newspapers - but is clearly a non-league-standard traitor who should be pelted because he was beaten by an England winger for one of the goals and involved in a defensive cock-up for the second, away to a high-flying Premier League team that we'd kept in touch with for 70-odd minutes...

Mellor's never been the same player since LJ hung him out to dry and humiliated him in the press by saying 'he couldn't run'... This is a guy that turned it on big time in central midfield to keep us up. We should remember that and give him less stick on here. But just when he looked like a 'Wes that can also pass', he was out of the team and never given a run of games. LJ has always had a thing about the players that were here before it seems. Winchester deserves immense praise for literally forcing his way in so he couldn't be ignored or dropped without a lot of criticism. This is Mellor's last chance. He'll be trying his best. We should support him.

Could easily be Sunday again. Yes the betting marks do throw up some silly stuff, reacting to silly bets - or perhaps tempting them (eg Kuqi when Dowie is prob a some deal). But they also, most of the time, throw up the truth in there as well, in reaction to in-the-know bets - like when it was a shock to us when LJ was suddenly favourite for Barnsley. Those initial bets wouldn't have all been guesswork...

When you receive a job offer, it then becomes on your terms - not the club's?!! And to be fair it wasn't like 'sign here', Simon kept mentioning re Scholes/Dowie etc that the job has to be right for them too. Scholes is a former world-class footballer and wealthy pundit. The only chance we'd get him as manager pretty much is if we're his first job. Hence us leaving the door open. Logical, for me. It's poor form to criticise him for not running to the phone. 1: he's got a good job now and will always receive offers - not his fault. 2: he's human, and at this point life wants to see his kids. So let's not shoot ourselves in the foot by stirring criticism of him. He didn't have to do such an open, honest statement, in his national newspaper column, giving the club lots of publicity and praise. Lot of class in my opinion - still trying and willing to help us in any way he can, and willing to make sure he'll take the manager's job (if it came up again) when he knows he could do it to the best of his ability. Still a red b****** though ;-)

I'd guess Dowie is verbally tied. Kuqi maybe has been interviewed or some nice publicity and a red herring to attract a few bets. LJ was sorted with Barnsley a lot earlier than has been implied, around when the initial spike in odds happened. The Dowie put on the spot question also came quite early - everyone was talking about Scholes... I expect an appointment early next week...

Just suggests we couldn't pay him enough wages?

Could suddenly be a different player........

Do ppl want Dowie for Dowie, or partly the work ethic and fitness? Is it the case that his old associate is now with Shez? Might increase his chances.....

This quote from Corney today.... “It was always in Lee’s hands. This is how it works now,” Corney said. “If Jose Mourinho wants to go to Real Madrid then it is in his hands — and he is about to get a new four-year contract.” ...makes we wonder if LJ was close to leaving when we gave him that big contract!