Andy b

15 hours ago, Ritchierich said:

cool, I’ve seen us twice with him in charge and the performance has been horrific in both…not enough for me to write him off but nothing yet to make me trust his judgement either

I. That’s i. Trust his judgement. I have no reason not to and having been hand picked by owners and a board I trust my default is to trust him also 
 

I trust unsworth’s judgement. Nothing more to say 

5 minutes ago, Pidge said:

That shouldn't stop us as a fans co-op purchasing it, as long as we are prepared to take the risk.  It should bring the price down as we would be taking the risk on.

The council should be happy because the community would now own the new stand that they contributed to building, hence the risk goes away. 

The trust has not even begun to debate whether it should be trying to purchase the ground so don’t hold your breath.

Granted we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes with blitz etc but it baffles me that the trust has not asked fans whether it should be looking to raise funds to buy the ground, club or both (in part or full). 

9 hours ago, LightDN123 said:

@mcfluff1985 I have been critical of the foundation and specifically the lack of update on the contingency fund figure. But if you are so passionate about it, why don’t you volunteer to look into it and get it resolved ? 

I’ve tried that. He’d rather snipe from the sidelines without offering a single bit of constructive guidance. 

8 minutes ago, mcfluff1985 said:

So if the trust directors are campaigning for something, you think how much time they spend on it is irrelevant? 

Sorry. Time spent yes broadly relevant. How much personal money put in is not

9 minutes ago, mcfluff1985 said:

I'd love an answer to this...

I 100% reject any suggestion that trust directors need to answer this question. Irrelevant. 

47 minutes ago, singe said:

Given the state we are in, I don't think it's going to make a huge difference.

There are a couple or 3 parties that benefit from further delay. 

You say that as if rushing something out will get us more money in a shorter timeframe. How so? 

More speed less haste is, I think, the term. 

3 minutes ago, singe said:

 

Who does it benefit to delay things further?

 

At the very least that could be done in parrallel.

It benefits the credibility of the appeal for contributions if time is take to get the pitch right 

Just now, singe said:

The danger with being very specific is that another unforseen event/s could materialise, and having to go back to members could delay things. But being clear should not be a problem. 

Fairly sure that could be managed through clear provisions which allow funds to be directed elsewhere should the need arise and as long as certain conditions are met.
 

It’s woefully over simplistic at the moment and needs some proper legal input 

1 hour ago, mcfluff1985 said:

Only 14k in the pot. They can't keep people up to date. Save yourself the hassle. You've done a good job with your bit but it seems not everyone else on the trust gives a fuck.

 

Tlthey can add stories etc to website but can't update  a number? Horse shit. Even if that was the case they could have added a new story with updates on figures, they manage to add their open letters etc. 

 

Talk about lack of communication from the club. Pot kettle 

 

(Just to be clear, in no way a dig at you @singe)

 

Just finished listening to the pod from after the Exeter game a few weeks back. Matt talks openly about the shortcomings of a ‘contingency fund’ as being far too generic and uninspiring to incentivise people to invest. I couldn’t agree more. 
 

I have considered setting up a significant monthly direct debit but won’t do so until there is some more clarity as to what we are raising money for. What’s the end game? A rainy day fund won’t cut it.

I emailed the trust months ago and asked them to go out to fans and get a mandate from them around the idea of fan ownership (be for some of the club or ground or both) which is the logical purpose of any fund raising initiative. This would give the fund a clear objective which people can get behind. Fans may reject that aim but otherwise the trust has no authority to be asking for money without significant clarity as to its objective. 

I received no response whatsoever. 
 

i ask again. Why is money being raised?

47 minutes ago, dannyboy55555 said:

Agreed - have a direct debit set up but not keen to keep it going if this doesn't get a regular update

Its not good is it. This needs far more energy than is going into it. It’s playing second fiddle to I don’t know what within the trust. Shame. 

49 minutes ago, OASF1895 Lottery said:

Because people are playing weekly, and paying up front in varying amounts, startin playing at various time and we have to take off prize increase notionally monthly net is not a measure used as it's not "banked".
 

Possibly the simplest way is currently a net after fees and prize increase, and £5 lucky dip we have £183 net each week. However, we currently have £8,885 raised. Ot of that the weekly £50 prize increase, (currently £1,150 jackpot to pay out if it's won)  and £5 per week Lucky Dip commitment. However, the majority of Lucky Dip winners have generously donated their £5 back into the pot.

Hope that answers the question sufficiently.

 

Thank you for the swift response 

Just now, Andy b said:

Well done all. 

May I ask what the lottery is achieving by way of monthly net income at the moment?

4 hours ago, singe said:

Obviously I mean to use the OASF Lottery account, but you get the gist.

 

Can I also pay tribute to the OASF recruitment drive by the new Directors. They've managed to get 200 new today, which is fantastic. Howpfully some will join the lottery to further enhance the Contingency Fund.

Well done all. 

Great listen again chaps. Adult conversations about the issues and future effort to reclaim the faith. Thank you for sticking your necks out.

One takeaway. Yes press the club for change and bemoan the fact that it can’t do simple things right - Billy’s insights were enlightening and those things need airing to get all fans (especially those still sitting on the fence) to see the regime for what it is.

But do realise that the key reason for all of that is that the owner doesn’t give a shit about such things and never will. It’s disheartening to hear good people come up with good ideas which the owner is too stubborn and blinkered to listen to. He’s entrenched and is a lost cause.
 

The basic administration of the club will fall apart further without Barry around who am sure held a lot together to ensure it could open on a match day, pies were available, the electricity stayed on etc - the absolute basics. I foresee a time fairly soon when even that won’t happen.

We have to badger and appeal to AL as a tick box exercise and so he has got nowhere to go should he try and defend himself. But do so knowing that it won’t affect anything.
 

The real cause is much bigger than that.

6 minutes ago, Dublinoafc said:

 

Thank you LOF, I appreciate the comments.

 

I'm excited because I genuinely feel there is a groundswell of support amongst the fanbase to do something positive and to make a difference.

That’s how I interpreted your cause for optimism Matt but I am not convinced Karl and the club would automatically see that particular movement as a reason in itself to be optimistic. 
 

debate has to move on what a fanbase can do to make a difference in the particular circumstances we face. There is no one size fits all model for fan influence. Horses for courses and I would say the baseline circumstances we find ourselves in are  not great in that regard 
 

3 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

Are the FLG totally out of the picture now? Are there any more debentures to be settled?

Nothing from the club or,

more relevantly, the Trust on this. Who knows.

4 minutes ago, LightDN123 said:

Fair question. Lots of things I could go into here but lets focus on the one Karl highlights as the priority, buying the assets, stadium and land from the previous owners. 
 

He highlights the potential in both interviews, yet within that 3 month period has accepted literally nothing has been done. The reason behind that he says is because there is no financial incentive currently for AL and co to generate revenue through these currently. Okay that’s understandable, but he says no contact has been made and it’s on the back burner. 
 

From that I take it that they will pick this up when fans are back in the ground ? Okay, so admittedly we will be going back to a ground with the North Stand shut as they decided to sideline negotiations as they wouldn’t make money from it. To purchase the assets will take months, so we are in a situation where we are waiting for the fans to be allowed back into the ground, which by the looks of it is summer at the earliest. At that point we will discuss negotiations of the assets, which as I have said could drag on for god knows how long. 

It would have been wise to try and negotiate this now, so when we are allowed back into the ground it was fully open. The effect that would have on fans should not be underestimated honestly. (Even to say it’s in the process) 
 

Karl said himself, the only thing that could move us forward as a club is that North Stand. He’s done nothing about it, and doesn’t look like he will be. 
 

In my opinion, and backed up by Karl. Progress in other areas are pointless unless that is resolved. 

Agree that that was disappointing. It’s one thing accepting that things are on hold a little but one would expect the parties to be getting their ducks in a row to enable the sale to progress expediently when the world opens up again.

Difficult to blame Karl for that though. He doesn’t hold the purse strings.

3 minutes ago, LightDN123 said:

Cheers for the response Matt. 
 

The three things you highlight, increasing AL’s exposure to the fans. An interview which most questions were answered by the interviewee doesn't really increase transparency for me, admittedly he said he would change this structure in the future. But, then a news paper article comes out which AL has done an interview for claiming a load of false promises, which Karl supposedly told him not to do. 
 

Badge engagement. I actually liked this so fair enough. But as he admits this was forced due to ownership rights of the current (previous) badge. Therefore, I would say essential rather than progress.

 

Comms output on other parts of OAFC. Yeah I will give him this, should be done anyway, but fair enough.

 

In no way critical of you, just don’t believe the above classes as any real progress in the last 3 months. 

What would be classed as reasonable indicators of progress, which someone can be fairly expected to have made, in a three month period? 
 

not saying I disagree with you. 

1 minute ago, Dublinoafc said:

 

 

Thanks both. In his 1st interview he said he wanted to expose Abdallah to the fans, he wanted to do some kit and badge engagement & he wanted to widen the media & comms output from just focussing on the 1st team. He has done all of these things in his first 3 months.

 

What I don't think he appreciated necessarily is how little difference these would make to fan & club relations. It's going to take a lot more significant work & behavioural change to begin to affect perception.... BUT if we're all talking... then there's a chance.

There was also some coverage of the AL interview and limitations of AL’s English speaking skills both in engaging with fans and indeed in communicating with staff and at board level.

Just an idea but as an owner of an English football club, with English speaking employees with whom he needs to engage, I wonder if AL might have sought to improve his English during his 3+ year involvement with the club to date. Not saying he hasn’t but he cant and shouldn’t be defended on the basis of a poor grasp of the English language 

Listened to the full 2 hours with Karl. In brief my observations:

1) great podcast shining a light on critical issues and giving the club, supporters and groups an effective and well managed platform for debate.  Great means of feeding back to the club, as long as the quality on the guests is maintained at the current level. Beats social media shouting any day

2) Matt’s a great chair. Fair and balanced 

3) I can see that via various channels - the podcast, PTB and the Trust’s comms with the club (yes!) - the club is hearing some consistent messages from fans. For the large part i believe fans have started to reach a general consensus about the issues at the club that they perceive and, through these channels, have been able to articulate these issues on a consistent basis so the messages land. There may not be a consistent view on the solution (AL out at one end of the spectrum and a more pragmatic position at the other) but that’s perhaps another matter. 
 

However i think the increasingly common position fans are taking on what the issues are translates to a consistency in what the club is hearing from fans, especially now that more professional and formal routes for feeding back (PTB etc) exist. This is really important.

The absence of such a consensus (in defining the issues) and the absence of effective channels to communicate those issues to the club has been a real constraint to effective fan action in the  past - the corney regime being the best illustration of that where 50 per cent of the fan base didn’t even believe there were any issues. Corney was able to get away with stripping and managing the decline of the club as a result and was barely challenged. Our current owners aren’t smart enough to manage and manipulate our fans thankfully. 

4) I quite like Karl and have a lot of sympathy for the position he is in and what he has inherited. He’s on a hiding to nothing in many respects and I particular don’t envy him in trying to win over fans - and there are a large number of these - who will never offer any goodwill and just want to criticise. That’s a not uncommon trait of oldham fans. He is naive at times though and needs to understand the psyche of oldham fans and what damage nearly 30 years of decline has inflicted. He should set his expectations about what sort of response he gets accordingly. That said, he is within his rights to express disappointment that some of the good stuff falls on deaf ears. I think the criticism of the badge and kit stuff was a good example. He was clearly trying and didn’t do much wrong in the way he went about it in my view. Not sure why he got such a kick in for that to be honest.

Great work Matt 

On 1/15/2021 at 7:38 PM, Dublinoafc said:

Evening Latics fans.

 

For those of you who neither frequent Twitter or Facebook, at the beginning on this season we launched The Boundary Park Alert System Podcast, hosted by me Matt Dean, with regular contributors and special guests too. The podcast is available weekly, from 7am every Monday and can be found in all your usual podcast locations;

 

Spotify http://is.gd/mS09wv

Apple http://is.gd/xbTgDQ

Google http://is.gd/Bak46X

YouTube http://is.gd/ge3YBo

 

An Oldham Athletic fan produced podcast, that gives voice to the long suffering Latics faithful. Controversy and uncertainty follow Oldham like a deranged stalker up Sheepfoot Lane and there's never a dull moment. Apart from during the actual football, obviously. Why not give us a listen & get in contact.

 

You can join in the conversation by emailing your messages, questions, rants and voice messages to bpalertsystem@gmail.com.

Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook @oafcpodcast.

Listened to the full 2 hours with Karl. In brief my observations:

1) great podcast shining a light on critical issues and giving the club, supporters and groups an effective and well managed platform for debate.  Great means of feeding back to the club, as long as the quality on the guests is maintained at the current level. Beats social media shouting any day

2) Matt’s a great chair. Fair and balanced 

3) I can see that via various channels - the podcast, PTB and the Trust’s comms with the club (yes!) - the club is hearing some consistent messages from fans. For the large part i believe fans have started to reach a general consensus about the issues at the club that they perceive and, through these channels, have been able to articulate these issues on a consistent basis so the messages land. There may not be a consistent view on the solution (AL out at one end of the spectrum and a more pragmatic position at the other) but that’s perhaps another matter. 
 

However i think the increasingly common position fans are taking on what the issues are translates to a consistency in what the club is hearing from fans, especially now that more professional and formal routes for feeding back (PTB etc) exist. This is really important.

The absence of such a consensus (in defining the issues) and the absence of effective channels to communicate those issues to the club has been a real constraint to effective fan action in the  past - the corney regime being the best illustration of that where 50 per cent of the fan base didn’t even believe there were any issues. Corney was able to get away with stripping and managing the decline of the club as a result and was barely challenged. Our current owners aren’t smart enough to manage and manipulate our fans thankfully. 

4) I quite like Karl and have a lot of sympathy for the position he is in and what he has inherited. He’s on a hiding to nothing in many respects and I particular don’t envy him in trying to win over fans - and there are a large number of these - who will never offer any goodwill and just want to criticise. That’s a not uncommon trait of oldham fans. He is naive at times though and needs to understand the psyche of oldham fans and what damage nearly 30 years of decline has inflicted. He should set his expectations about what sort of response he gets accordingly. That said, he is within his rights to express disappointment that some of the good stuff falls on deaf ears. I think the criticism of the badge and kit stuff was a good example. He was clearly trying and didn’t do much wrong in the way he went about it in my view. Not sure why he got such a kick in for that to be honest.

Great work Matt 

2 minutes ago, League one forever said:

How can his on pitch merits not be part of the debate Andy?? 

 

Because you then go on to say it’s a real a shame that someone of his experience isn’t involved. Well, I presume you mean his experience as a player? Because he’s not being paid to just have around the place. His experience last season was a real let down, because someone of ilk/experience should and could have contributed more than the second worst defensive record IMO. Part of the debate is about getting him back in the side, and all I’m saying is the stats from last season don’t back that argument up. 
 

That doesn’t mean I don’t see or agree about the general malaise at the club, and that players being frozen out on semi consistent basis just doesn’t look good. 
 

 

Praise indeed 

2 minutes ago, Chaddy14 said:

Isn't the simple fact that yes our team may be better with DW (if fit and bothered) would be better. However, when people have lost or are losing jobs, furloughed or taking pay cuts during Covid, one has to question what any owner of a business should do with their "leader" the highest earner, when they refuse to join everyone else and their team mates on helping the club survive. He need sot get a taste of real life out there at the moment?

 

At my firm, taking that stance wouldn't only get one "frozen out". Poor old DW, sitting there on his pay package, training with the youths. I've not got much sympathy tbh. His agent should move him on asap.

 

Rant over!

If that’s the reason he is frozen out then I think that’s fair enough. Wasn’t mentioned by Karl though 

31 minutes ago, League one forever said:

We had the second worst defensive record in the division last season. Conceding 57. DW Played in 34 of 37 league games. This season we have the worst defensive record in the division. So DW’s inclusion means we’ll go from worst to second worst defence. . all while he is top earner. . don’t know about you Dave, but I want more of a contribution from someone of his ilk than that. 
 

The attack last season featured Vera, segbe, and Wilson. We then signed Rowe in Jan, and Dearnley and Mac in the summer. The attack is an upgrade because quite simply it’s completely different (and better) players. 

 

Comparing the two is moot. 

 

 

 

The on pitch merits of DW isnt going anywhere as a debate. However, given the relative inexperience of our squad, to have a situation where a player with the experience (and presumably professionalism) of DW is frozen out seems, at best, a real shame. At worst it is damaging to our ability to compete in this league. That’s the spectrum and I am sure the vast majority of fans sit between these too

extremes. I would have thought our team could benefit from his presence in and around the squad, whether he plays every week or not.
 

But what do I know? Well I don’t trust our owners so I am far from convinced that their freezing out of DW has been done on reasonable grounds and for the benefit of the club. 
 

The over riding point is that it concerns me (and I think a good number of fans as well) that it keeps happening. When you add up the players that have been frozen out in a similar manner, the willingness on the part of the owner to keep doing this can only be holding us back as a team.