BristolOwl

Perhaps LJ dropped Baxter because of the scouts that were no doubt at BP on Saturday. The trick worked well at Shrewsbury last season and helped us secure Korey Smith's signature in the close season. Will Baxter play against Tranmere? I think he will start on the bench, although Baxter and pater might have a view.

Excellent report, Prozac, you should be snapped up by the Chron as the new Jim Williams. And LJ and the team remind me of 1970 when Williams was in his pomp and Frizz saved us from what seemed like certain re-election when he was appointed in that bleak mid-winter of 69/70, and created the lovely attacking team that got us out of Div 4 the next season, led by King of the Jungle Jim Fryatt.

He would have improved even more this season - like all the players under the previous manager, they either stagnated, regressed or encouraged Glad he is with Barnsley; I think he went there not for mercenary reasons, but to avoid more hassle and neglect at Doncaster and hoped for another club to bid for him. It's so annoying that so many good players' contracts aren't rolled-on so that we get a fee. Gross incompetence - if they aren't delivering then we don't take up the final year option, but players such as Taylor, Smith and JYM should have been respected and coached better, and on leaving we would have had very handsome returns. But LJ will ensure that this situation is less likely to continue, respecting and bringing all players on, and using his intelligence and professionalism to debate matters with Corney and srengthen the club's future.

Excellent questions ZiggaZagga. the only certainty is that our shy (when it comes to disclosing financial information) owner (owners?) will not answer them. There has been a lack of transparency since the 3As arrived and it won't change until Corney leaves. The role of the trust is a joke, more a propaganda arm of Corney than an intelligent, independent force representing the fans. I can't see how even the most consevative Oldham-based supporter can be so blinkered as to see Corney as a messiah, as the 3As have created publicly-unknown but likely-considerable debts during the ten years that they've run the club back into the ground. Much of the debt is a result of their secretive, arrogant management style, which treats fans with contempt and has caused a shambles. We do not live in an oligarchy or totalitarian regime.The farrago of the bid for land in Failsworth, which included an element of charitable trust land, typifies the approach. It cost, according to rumour, several million pounds, when it seems even a novice solicitor would quickly have told the club not to proceed with such a hopeless venture. (If the 3As have in fact put this cost as a debt against the club then it needs to be looked when details emerge, probably after a new regime arrives - although it will be "debts" such as this, if they exist, which may deters buyers.) Other decisions, such as the "loan" to QPR, could have been very detrimental to our club. I don't think that Corney ever will have the ability or the means to run a professional football club, unless supported by talented, knowledgeable colleagues, but that is just my view. However, in any event some clarity about our financial position might put him in a better light. Much rumour will be found to be wrong. The horror is that we just don't know and even in de-regulated Britain, we should know. I have been a fan for sixty years and don't begrudge a penny spent on that support. What disgusts me is that we are treated in a contemptuous way which would not be acceptable even if we had just won the Premier league title. Why is our Chairman so reluctant to disclose where we stand?

Pure deceit from Croft. Employment contracts can be offered verbally and it's then up to negotiation if the employee wishes it. Neither Croft or his agent has got back to the club since the offer - over a month ago - and LJ is quite right to do what he did. The tweet suggests that Croft leaves everything to his agent, will play for the highest bidder, having no no particular commitment to the club, and has yet to receive an acceptable offer from elsewhere. Fine. (Croft is not an intellectual but it's touching that he doesn't want to upset the Latics fans.) The corollary is that LJ will shed no tears and seek a new player at least as good who wants promotion from Division 1. Dickov was still waiting for his chums to get back to him well into July. We are becoming a professional club again, with the ethics and standards to match.

It's bitterly disappointing that we don't get a fee, but typical of the club's management under Dickov and Corney. Matt rotted in the reserves last season, un-coached and neglected, before he was shipped out to doomed Macclesfield towards the end. Underpaid, under-developed and underpaid, he rightly awaited for his contract to run its course. This hopefully marks the end of a period of extraordinary waste and incompetence, both on the field and off it (pulling down the stand after the biggest depression in 100 years, spending millions (or adding to the club's debt) on a mad-cap plan to build on charitable land etc.). I'm sure that LJ has the intelligence, moral fibre, common sense and vision to put an end to the madness.

God help Doncaster. Strange they didn't go for Appleton. The Board had a list of 18 criteria to manage candidates against. PD is a good talker but any deep analysis of his time at BP should have deterred Donny.

Yeovil's success shows that if you're good enough your big enough. I have a strong feeling that Lee Johnson will be in the same mould as Hardwick and Frizzell and get us promoted, even with Corney's dodgy decision-making. It might help persuade the many nay-sayers in Oldham that Championship football at the very least is possible. I've been hearing for 60 years how the town is too small (!?,), poverty-stricken, and united and city too close, div 3 will be full of great teams next season etc. etc. Let's hope we can keep LJ and get promoted playing the brilliant attacking football of his great predecessors. Then the Premiership - Oldham is now in a big conurbation stretching even into Tykeland. The key might be in getting a more positive and ambitious fan-base, once the long-awaited promotion arrives. Clearly we need stability at board level but teams such as Swansea show what can be done with quality leadership and long-term planning with limited resources.

Royle played down the lost goal, but it has turned out to be historic. We would of course with a win have got to our first FA cup final, but the larger significance was and is that if United had lost Chairman Edwards would have sacked Fergie, in his fifth year without a medal for the mid-table team. It's nearly as bad as 1914/15 when we needed one point from the last two games, both at home, to win the Division 1 title. Of course, we lost them both.

He has made a magnificent start and shows how good management can transfer a team. No whinging about refs, injuries, acts of god, etc., but utilizing his resources as best he can to prosper, particularly the demoralized and neglected youngsters on the fringe. TP mustn't be forgotten. Both he and LJ have averaged 1.5 points per game; anything less and we would have been in the direst jeopardy this morning, after PD's 0.9 points. I can't wait for the close season and its comings and goings.

Corney has made a number of calamitous mistakes, both with the 3As and on his own, but his poor judgement and short-sighted meaness is best issustrated by his refusal to sack Dickov. In over 60 years supporting Latics, he was the worst I've ever seen. He might have escaped that epithet if Corney had de-fenestrated him earlier. Why raise this now? Because it illustrates that our demise is being caused by Corney, not the Premiership, the decline of the West etc. He couldn't even give our manager a few weeks before the transfer deadline, in which case we would have been safe by now. By the time LJ realised the horror of our predicament, it was too late. Poor fitness, weaknesses in key positions, lack of morale, poor leadership and a complacent cardre of senior players who believed the propaganda that the cowardly and incompetent diminutive Scot fed them, an absence of strategic and tactical ability etc could have at least been partly ameliorated with signings. A few tens of thousands from the cup run profits could have been well spent, and prevented Corney's fear of relegation. Doubtless the new stand will be postponed if we go down. I still think that the 3As should pay for the stand they pulled down in a fit of panic. Whatever the official explanation, or the feeble excuses that we had at the time, the stand came down AFTER the UK market was going pear-shaped. And it was well after the collapse of US real estate, as the 3As well knew as investors in that market. The stand should have remained. That decision has cost us dearly in money, self-respect and lost points. We are lucky to have LJ but I pray that Corney can off-load himself soon. He might well "love" the club but I think our aged cat has more sense and vision.

I must say I was underwhelmed and shocked when I heard about the appointment but the interview session was extremely impressive. LJ does sound just the ticket, dynamic, intelligent with plans and strategies that impress. He isn't just the smooth talker that PD was. His ideas fit into the latics historic style - playing attractive footballand looking for goals. He might be the Frizzell, Royle or George Hardwick that have come to us as first-time managers and excelled. I think he's confident we'll stay up with just one new player and some organisation - he'll continue to carry on TP's efforts at fitness tactics and strategy. Hopefully Grounds as captain will improve his play also (I thought Ground's was a loanee fo a year, but there). Anyroad, I think we are on the way up, the problem hopefully will to be hold on to the tyro, and Corney will have made a good decision (all the other appointments were by the 3As).

It is extraordinary that Corney hasn't appointed a manager. He should have done it at Xmas. All clubs need a manager, and we certainly do after years of incompetence culminating in our worst coach ever. Corney can still take advantage of the boosts of sacking Dickov, the money from the cup run -and even the feelgood factor of the cup will come back if we appoint somebody soon. Hopefully TP will make clear that urgent action is necessary. We don't want the season to end in shame and farce and hopefully we can avoid eventually threatening a campaign such as that necessary to oust Moore. I am getting increasingly concerned about the cup money, on top of the purported debts that the 3As appear to have claimed against the club (much of which is simply a quantification of their stupid decisions such as Failsworth). We have now had 3 millionaire chairmen in 50 years and all have failed because they have had no real commitment, are not philanthropic - they don't even admit to themselves that some of their money will be lost, don't really have the money to pretend to be white knights, and are dictators, who always drag everything down with them when they fail. (Ken Bates was the classic, all he brought to BP were his ddreams and good spin.) Even if we hadn't had the cup run we'd need a manager. Corney should listen to the fans, TP and all others who love the club. It's a pity that the club's board is packed with incompetent yes-men. If Corney believes that disaster would strike if we were relegated, then why not do something about it. It wouldn't take much to inspire the team again, before the season ends next month. Corney isn't even looking for a good legacy - taking 10 years to put us back in division four for the first time since 1969 would be pitiful.

Recent history is definately on our side. In the three FA Cup draws against Everton (1990, 2008 and 2013) they have yet to beat us after five matches. If a team is to panic next week, it won't be us. And the older Toffees will remember the first replay in 1990 when they tried to kick us off the pitch, and they jeered their own team. We are in good nick with TP and the whole world is behind us. The surreal is becoming the norm.

PD's departure is sad but was inevitable. Corney's method of despatch was poor, the theatre of the absurd; Dickov should have been sacked with the rest of his team He had absolutely no skills as a manager except in self-promotion, and the stream of excuses was an embarassment. He had no philosophy of football, tactical understanding or any ability to develop players, whether experienced or green, individually or collectively. The only thing that stood out during his reign were the dirty tactics, gamesmanship and overall drabness. He couldn't handle the senior players except as a dressing room chum and brought in a croney to assist him and not the experienced coach we needed (at least it wasn't Robbie Savage!). His tenure for me was best described, perhaps unintentionally, by Karl Millar following his month's loan with a fellow youngster to Chorley in the late autumn. According to the Chron., Millar was overwhelmed by his short time there. He enthused how Gary Flitcroft and his assistants had improved his technique, footballing awareness and confidence. He returned, from a team many leagues below us, and promptly fell back into his trough of despond, our coaches either ignoring him or knocking what Karl had learned out of him. The senior players in our squad may lament losing their pal but if they have anything about them, as professional footballers, then they will soon forget him and relish playing fo a real coach with intellct, experience and gravitas. Let's hope Corney will get it right - at least it's his decision alone this time. This squad should soon advance, with just a bit of luck and a real determination to pay for a competent manager. And let's hope we can keep Philliskirk, the one shining star in 20 years of coaching dross.

Typically, there is news everywhere about the Croft saga but nothing on the Latics website. Why can't we be given the facts for once? If we then sign him later, or not, then fine, say so then. Also the Chron says that Smith is out for weeks, at least. Again, I can't recall anything on the official website. In the light of yesterday's loans, the story about Smith seems to be true - so why no information? All we get is twaddle from PD that the cup run, which had earned the club not far short of £500k before the kick off on sunday, had meant that he can't bring anyone in! (All the monies obviously had not actually been received, and costs accrued also, but they were a huge new asset that we could only dream of on new year's eve.) Yesterday's transactions expose PD's statement as either artful or suggesting the club's inability to carry out basic negotiations. How come that suddenly there is a beatific change by other clubs, agents and players to allow our new signings - when we had earned even more money and publicity further to price ourselves out of the market? Let's hope one day we can be run by the fans and not those who'd prefer to live in an Orwellian closed society, where propaganda is the only information and truth. Anyroad, the signings - which were imperative if we are to avoid relegation - on the back of the £1million cup-run might get us at least a draw with Everton and prevent a return to Div 4 after nearly fifty years. Invest wisely and reap the dividends, and the fans will return - particularly if they are shown respect, openess and trust; and the odd lick of paint (and removal of the water feature) might help improve all our self-respect and pride in the club. The extraordinary reaction in Britain and beyond to sunday's win, not least in Oldham and by the council, bodes well and hopefully will lead soon to a more professionally-run club that will attract the best: players, administrators, sponsors, investors and a wider spectrum of devoted fan, particularly school-kids. This is not pie in the sky; it's time to move away from a reactionary, fatalistic doom-and-gloom view.

It is quickly becoming apparent that the decision to keep PD will be a disaster. Furman's comments to the media about the players shock and disapproval at the recent sackings does not bode well. The captain and senior players should be diplomatic whatever they think in private. PD will never be a manager but he is superb at self-publicity and self-preservation. Clearly he has an easy job to get the players behind him in the power battles to come, whilst he networks to get a cushy coaching job in the Championship and restores his credibiliy. It'll serve Furman right if he doesn't get into the SA team; their manager is hopping mad at the club's refusal to release him after the new year match and he will be down the pecking order after he ambles to join the SA squad.

It's strange that Corney says that the board continues to have faith in Dickov. It seems that he won't sack him outright because it would be another major example of his poor decision-making. A new football director, first team coach (use whichever nomenclature you like) will not make PD a better manager but, hopefully, he and the rest of the new management team will allow Dickov to be frozen out before he destroys the club. I'm surprised that the conceited Dickov has not resigned following Taggart's demise but we can only hope, and doubtless Corney has told PD that he's a dead man walking unless results improve drastically.

It's extraordinary that the many reactionary Latics fans are frightened of losing Dickov because we might get somebody worse! I'd have thought that statistically impossible. He is clueless as a strategist and tactician and cannot deal with his senior players. His talent as a manager is in inverse proportion to his ambition. He shines at making excuses but little else. As Napoleon said, give me lucky generals. It is still possible at every level of professional football to exceed expectations with a good manager. Dickov lacks the skills, intelligence and self-awareness ever to succeed in this sphere. Letting him run a football team is like giving a clock to a monkey. Corney should be preparing for change, realising that a good manager is worth more than a whole team. Any team can get out of Division 3 with a talented coaching staff. Any clown will get you relegated. Let's stop walking towards the abyss and start behaving professionally, and hope for a little luck and goals. This team would be unrecognisable with competent leadership.