Fan up the ladder

Just sent £10. Great idea, well done. Just wondering how you will apply for the season tickets given that they insist on taking an individual's passport to prove they are under 16? I am sure there is a way round it though and you should get the club's buy-in.

Comfortably staying in league 1 would be enough for me on the pitch. What happens this season off the pitch is just as crucial, we need to see continued progression with that stand!

This has just been tweeted from a commentator at BBC Radio Nottingham: David Jackson ‏@Matchtalk #notts have rejected approaches for Lee Hughes from Cheltenham and Oldham. More to come... Expand Reply Retweet Favorite

Just had this message from a Bradford-supporting mate: "Tom Taiwo’s left us after Carlisle apparently want 250k compo for him" Guess that fee could have also put us off too? Assuming that he's out of contract but under 24 so a fee is due?

Would love to see the return of BTB or equivalent, would definitely part with a few quid every home game for it. It could also have benefit for player share, if not a share of any profit then at least some free advertising. Someone gave me a burnley fanzine from the early 90s recently and despite the age of it and the club involved it was still a decent read.

I guess not, and im not saying they should just let us have Clarke for a couple of shirts with Marsh-Brown on the back and the old Chaddy costume, but would hope that relationships between clubs are sufficiently established so that they can at least be open to negotiation rather than piss themselves at our offer. We've seen how good relationships between managers have led to loan signings from the top clubs (brown, scapuzzi etc) and previous transfers should mean some goodwill. Just thought about how SC has mentioned his dealings with other chairmen in the past and about that £500,000 loan to QPR - how times have changed, can we have some interest on that now?!

Without knowing the figures involved, interesting that Charlton seem not to be prepared to break bread with us when we let them have our best player two seasons ago for a relative pittance, as well as our top scorer in the previous season for about 20k.

Are any playershare fundraisers planned this "summer", like the race night last year?

I can't, at the moment, but will speak to Roy soon and let you know. We had difficulties last season as the host company only put up per-set links for the competitive games and we have to create our own for the friendliest But I'm sure with enough notice that's not insurmountable. Watch this space!

Just done a quick write up of Simon Corney's interview. Something to cling on to regarding the new stand, though he does emphasise they are not definite time periods... We’ve brought in a few what I would call quality players. A couple we knew about already like Robbie Simpson. Delighted to have Robbie on board, he was a standout performer last year. Credit to Dickov for getting him back, he could have gone elsewhere. Jonathan had other offers. His fantastic agent helped him push him towards up. He’s been part of the Boro set up for some time. We’ll see some good things. A genuine left back who will push on. Won’t be a quicker right back than Brown. Newcastle were reluctant to let Taylor go. Good to have Lee back – he’s part of the family. Was one of my first signings. He had a massive impact here previously. Gone on to bigger clubs. He’s come home as we like to say and it’s going to be a massive season for him. He’s looking sharp already. What budget restrictions Gordon?(!) It’s tough definitely. We have to work within certain parameters. We have put in more than we could have. Possibly 3 to 4 to come in. But we are in no rush and ready to go to Portugal next week with our hardcore 17. Everyone is expected to play a part in the season. Thinking behind Portugal. Bit of sun & beach, won’t say anything else! They are working hard already and it’s much about team bonding than anything else. I’ll be out there for a couple of days. I hope they will have a good time. Doing it in a professional manner. Play a couple of teams. (Spent a fair whack on pitch). Pitch looks magnificent. Spent a lot of money on it. Never looked this good. Got a good covering. Hopefully we’ll see a stand over there to complement it. We are making progress. If things go our way we may have a planning app submitted within next 4- 6 weeks. I say might in case anyone holds me to my word. Hopefully end July/start August then judicial period of 13 weeks and after that we may be a b le to start planning the build. There will be an initial building and we will start planning future development. We need to build on it and may have a couple of lean years. Charity match – Shaw disaster. Least we can do. We’ve lent the pitch, Jenny & Broady have put on a fantastic event. (Accept for next season) Play good football, fans entertained very important to me. Like to bring back some more people (fans). We’ve done the kids promotion which hopefully would have a good impact. We hope for another Liverpool game. Like to be in the top 6 but it’s about survival first. I’m not concerned in the least about that. Who knows? A lot of big teams have left the division and I’m quite confident. (Bizarrely) final question – Katy Perry or Kevin Pieterson?: Neither!

Apparently the infamous Alan Lee was on 7k a week last season. Ok hudds are big spenders and he came down from the championship, but it's still shocking (especially as it's him)

They are teasing us again.... (ignore the Matt Smith tweet - or choose not to ignore it - poor cut and pasting on my part - maybe his twin is the new signing?) Matt Chambers ‏@Matt_chambers_ Signing for #oafc today, hopefully. Not a hint from club who it is but vibes are positive on the player's quality... Expand Reply Retweet Favorite 5mMatt Smith ‏ @ mattjpsmith Just seen my twin! http://pic.twitter.com/yWtv0ynF View photo Reply Retweet Favorite 7mOldhamAthleticAFC ‏ @ OfficialOAFC Hopefully some good news to come from the club very shortly. Keep checking the website for details! http://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk Expand Reply Retweet Favorite

Just wondering (and this is not a complaint, everyone loves a good transfer rumour unless it's Guy Branston!) Did your source say "keep it to yourself and whatever you do, don't post it on OWTB"? I just think that if you're told something like this by revealing the info on here means you're less likely to get decent gossip again...

what is his natural position? Seemed to recall he came on as CM on the last day of the season and scored a fine header. Would be the middle of the park sewn up if so, and good competition for the two places.

Carl Serrant signed for Newcastle from us. Maybe Beherall then but technically Kuqi's last club was Newcastle before signing for us wasn't it? As for Taylor, hope he's the natural goalpoacher we've been missing for the last few years but that's a lot to ask for an 18-year-old. The majority of Dickov's signings are going to be a gamble but it's a gamble worth taking IMO.

Teaser on the OS now for more signing news this weekend.

Re Twitter - he's young and made a mistake - hopefully he will learn from that. After some of KMB's postings recently I don't think he's the type of player to learn and move on. Glad he's not with us next season. Re the calibre of the player - I'm firmly in the "give him a chance" camp. We're already accused of having a negative attitude to our players, but usually when they've played a few games. I hope he doesn't get straight on owtb to read what the fans are saying about him - not exactly going to inspire him to do well is it?

Simpson on Twitter today: Robbie Simpson ‏@RobbieSimmo Last few bits and bobs before heading to the airport...#MARBS with man like @Hunty32 @19_ward_90 @knownasoscar @paul_black3oh dear... Lol Doubt he'll be penning the deal from his sunlounger in Marbella. Holidays were always bound to get in the way of the 2 week "deadline", which makes a bit of a mockery of it in my opinion. If offers are on the table and players are happy to ignore the deadline then they must be hoping for other/better offers. But we don't know how many of them have had private discussions with the club and expressed their intent to sign on return. And nor should we know. This seemed to be the case with Morais last season.

Excellent news if confirmed - think with Simpson, Furman and Wes in the same side we only lost 1 game that season and that was at Anfield. Promising if the other two sign up and remain injury free (big if though)

Anything involving Peter Risdale in football should be disregarded. Didn't PNE get rid of about 20 players too? It's not about Latics v Preston, they seem to be the only team signing early in our division.

I think we need to "get in their faces" today and bring back the pressing game that we saw early last season, eg hudds at home. I know that's easier said than done! Has to be mchangama and furman in centre mid in my opinion for us to be able to harass and press enough to put them off their game.

Dickov (obviously under scrutiny in another thread) has to now motivate the squad in a way which doesn't make them crap themselves when they go out and play but at the same time instil in their mentality that they are still fighting and not to think that relegation is totally out of the question. 48 points probably does mean we're safe and was the amount of points 20th had last season. However the management and squad cannot afford to be complacent in this regard if there's even a small risk that it won't be enough.

Which ones do you think will be taken on Gary? Seems, only from people's judgements on here, that Riley, Belezika and Burns are the most highly rated. Riley is quite amusing on twitter but I'm not sure that's going to help or hinder his cause...

I agree with Prozac that a more experienced coach should come in and assist Dickov, eg Lennie Lawrence at Crystal Palace. I think it would be a huge asset. But this would most likely put Taggart's nose massively out of joint (metaphorically, as it probably already is out of joint literally) and possibly Dickov's too if the idea is suggested to him rather than being something he accepts/suggests himself.

He only really played a couple of times didn't he?! Suspension and the injury rather curtailed him. Hope that's left back position sorted for the rest of the season. No sign of the other signing then?!