Diego_Sideburns Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 In tonight's rarely wrong Chron: Boundary Park chief executive Alan Hardy admitted: “We realise the team is not playing good football. “I can’t criticise the fans for not enjoying it and we have to find a remedy. “But, while understanding their frustration, we need the fans’ support. “The more support we have, the more it will help the club’s financial situation.” http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-fea...o-stayaway-fans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dw35 Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 To be honest im not really suprised its as low as it is. im 21 and started goin when i was 10. And everything has changed, people wernt as negative as they are now, the football wasn't as bad, it was cheaper (not much though), even the pies were alright! but now everythins gone downhill. players dont seem interested bar abbott and :censored: (my opinion), tactics are dreadful, too expensive to go. Ive been to every home game and it is beginning to annoy me because i pay £20 quid for not very good football! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diego_Sideburns Posted January 28, 2010 Author Share Posted January 28, 2010 To be honest im not really suprised its as low as it is. im 21 and started goin when i was 10. And everything has changed, people wernt as negative as they are now, the football wasn't as bad, it was cheaper (not much though), even the pies were alright! but now everythins gone downhill. players dont seem interested bar abbott and :censored: (my opinion), tactics are dreadful, too expensive to go. Ive been to every home game and it is beginning to annoy me because i pay £20 quid for not very good football! Hardy: I can’t criticise the fans for not enjoying it and we have to find a remedy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollandspies Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Yep, top man Alan, look at the article and keep scrolling down, surprisingly plenty of positive support for Alan's rallying call.....good to see in such depressing times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killens_physio Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 (edited) To be honest i dont even think its just the product on the pitch which is turning people away, but the whole disillusionment with the way things are at the club. Yes the football is utter tripe but there is just a stale feeling around BP nowadays and its lost what remaining atmosphere there was. When i first started going to Latics in the late 80's early 90's it always used to feel like a really friendly club and it was a nice place to be. Now it just seems as if most people turn up as a kind of duty they feel bound by. The only way to change that is to start producing something on the pitch to get people back, but after the crap ive seen this season I cant see that happening anytime soon. Edited January 28, 2010 by Killens_physio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legoboy Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 “The more support we have, the more it will help the club’s financial situation.” i.e. Give us yer money!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny punkster Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 Hardy: I can’t criticise the fans for not enjoying it and we have to find a remedy. put a entertaining product out on the pitch..there's your remedy. theres still a minimum of 2 years before we get legoland if it happens,so they better get used to the idea fans are piss€d off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wardie Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 To be honest i dont even think its just the product on the pitch which is turning people away, but the whole disillusionment with the way things are at the club. Yes the football is utter tripe but there is just a stale feeling around BP nowadays and its lost what remaining atmosphere there was. When i first started going to Latics in the late 80's early 90's it always used to feel like a really friendly club and it was a nice place to be. Now it just seems as if most people turn up as a kind of duty they feel bound by. The only way to change that is to start producing something on the pitch to get people back, but after the crap ive seen this season I cant see that happening anytime soon. Couldn't agree more...BP is a now a run down shack of a ground, with a product on the pitch to match it. To me, the last time it felt almost as bad as this was when Graeme Sharp was in charge and relegation to the second division was imminent. In contrast, every match in the premiership felt like a cup final...sitting in the Rochdale Road end next to the away fans was brilliant. I've never been this depressed about the Latics, the feeling of an impending crisis just won't go away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beag_teeets Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 Not a personal dig at anyone but can we please drop this "entertaining football" line. We haven't had entertaining football at BP since we sold Neil Adams (Soccerbase - went to Norwich 17/02/94) and concentrated on staying in the Prem rather than entertaining the hard working public of Oldham. We have had 16 years of unmitigated dire football at BP yet the line about "entertaining football" has only been bandied about for about 18 months tops, it reared its head under Moore, disappeared under Shez and is now back like a bad smell. We are a small club at the bottom of the 3rd Division, to expect good entertaining football from that is madness - yes we can point to Rochdale who are sweeping all before them with goals from all over the pitch and our ex-player scoring his first league hatrick but that has come about by a manager building his side, getting lucky with O'Grady and using off the pitch methods that haven't even been seen in the Championship let alone Div 4. Hill is the equivalent of when we had Dowie and Harbin who were an exception to the norm then as Dale are today. We can't even get the basics right like passing the round white thing across the green flat thing to a man wearing the same colour shirt who is stood in a bit of space who can then move the ball forward and give it to another man wearing the same colour shirt who will put it past the man wearing gloves to cries of delight from the hordes of delighted home fans. It is going to be a long time until we see entertaining football at BP so we might as well forget about it for now. What we need to see is the opposite of entertaining football, we need simple effective football, unfortunately we can not even do this properly. We can't even do a high tempo pressing game with good agricultural hoofs from the back as these either go where the lookers should be or straight to their keeper as our forwards can not win a header if their lives depended on it. We are not going to get out of the bottom four playing the tippy-tappy one touch ole football that our prima-donnas are so keen on attempting. We really do have to go back to basics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny punkster Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 (edited) why drop the "entertaining" tag? latics are in the entertainment industry.if people don't think its entertaining (and therefore not value for money)they WON'T turn up! latics are competing against every form of entertainment and leisure in the world today...tv,cinema,pubs,gigs,etc etc. if they aren't providing value for money to the potential customer,they will not spend their money there. Edited January 29, 2010 by johnny punkster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beag_teeets Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 They are in the results industry, the entertainment is an added bonus. I've defended the team on here after draws and defeats and other posters have said that we don't get points for playing well, only the result is recorded, there isn't a column in the table after the pts column that gives style points. Get the basics right, get a few results, climb the table a bit, get some confidence in the team then we can think about the players "expressing themselves" and playing entertaining football. After 16 years of rubbish football it is a bit late in the day to start playing it now. At 4:51 tomorrow when the ref blows the whistle I'll take a god awful game but a nicked 1-0 over a delightful flowing game and 0-1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny punkster Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 They are in the results industry, the entertainment is an added bonus. i think the ronniesaurous episodes show thats not the case. most here would like to see 11 committed player giving it their feckin all for 90 mins every time they step on the pitch. results obviously matter too,but we pay to watch someone put in effort. we are a minimum of 2 years from today in this mess.the 2 year period will stay that way till the first brick is laid. they way things are going,this hole we are in is going to get much much deeper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfOAFC Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 “The more support we have, the more it will help the club’s financial situation.” i.e. Give us yer money!!! no flies on you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghostofcecere Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 To be honest i dont even think its just the product on the pitch which is turning people away, but the whole disillusionment with the way things are at the club. Yes the football is utter tripe but there is just a stale feeling around BP nowadays and its lost what remaining atmosphere there was. When i first started going to Latics in the late 80's early 90's it always used to feel like a really friendly club and it was a nice place to be. Now it just seems as if most people turn up as a kind of duty they feel bound by. The only way to change that is to start producing something on the pitch to get people back, but after the crap ive seen this season I cant see that happening anytime soon. Spot on that, one of the things that got me hooked was the camaraderie between Latics fans, we really were a Band of Brothers in those days. Before the 'pinch me' years the team often struggled, but there was never any real cynicism from the fans towards the team or the club. These days the opposite is true and if I'm honest I think this board has a lot to do with it, we are constantly turning on each other and the club, and this spiral of negagtivity and doom and gloom is becoming a self fullfilling prophecy. Yes we're crap, yes none of us wants to go to Failsworth, but the question is do we want an Oldham Athletic or not? I know I do; so as I've done before I'll weather the storm and keep the faith that the good times will return. May I suggest a period of exile from this board may help some, I know it has me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevie_J Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 Abort Barry Rallying Call! Abort! Abort! Pull out, Barry! Pull out! Initiate Alan Rallying Call... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beag_teeets Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 i think the ronniesaurous episodes show thats not the case. most here would like to see 11 committed player giving it their feckin all for 90 mins every time they step on the pitch. results obviously matter too,but we pay to watch someone put in effort. we are a minimum of 2 years from today in this mess.the 2 year period will stay that way till the first brick is laid. they way things are going,this hole we are in is going to get much much deeper. I freely admit now that I was wrong about Ronnie, I can't stand the man or anything about him but if he had managed to get us out of this league then I think a few more of us would be eating humble pie now. I went to a fans forum when he was manager and asked promotion or performances and my arm was straight up for promotion, the entertainment and performances come after. It is results all the way for me, when you trudge back across the car park after a battling 0-2 where they scraped 2 spawny goals it doesn't make you feel any better to know we played well. Whereas a 1-0 totally against the run of play with an early own-goal off a defender's backside after a goal-mouth scramble and 83 minutes of hanging on gives you 3 points and can move you up a few places. As for the rest of the entertainment industry, we all like music acts that don't even sell out the Academy yet have made music that touches us and we will listen to for 20+ years yet tripe like the X-Factor tour or Miley Cyrus will pack out the MEN Arena. Bad analogy I know but I agree footy is in that sector of the economy but it is very different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny punkster Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 I freely admit now that I was wrong about Ronnie, I can't stand the man or anything about him but if he had managed to get us out of this league then I think a few more of us would be eating humble pie now. I went to a fans forum when he was manager and asked promotion or performances and my arm was straight up for promotion, the entertainment and performances come after. It is results all the way for me, when you trudge back across the car park after a battling 0-2 where they scraped 2 spawny goals it doesn't make you feel any better to know we played well. Whereas a 1-0 totally against the run of play with an early own-goal off a defender's backside after a goal-mouth scramble and 83 minutes of hanging on gives you 3 points and can move you up a few places. As for the rest of the entertainment industry, we all like music acts that don't even sell out the Academy yet have made music that touches us and we will listen to for 20+ years yet tripe like the X-Factor tour or Miley Cyrus will pack out the MEN Arena. Bad analogy I know but I agree footy is in that sector of the economy but it is very different. it is different..we are EXPECTED to turn up week after week. if we don't, we get barry ,AH and TTA bleating on about it. if a certain artist made a load of crap albums, no one would turn up to his concerts to listen to it again...and they know it too. thats why huge bands/artists of today can churn out pretty average albums compared to their classic stuff, but continue to tour with the emphasis on just playing the crowd pleasers. in the end, even the hardcore fans get bored of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diego_Sideburns Posted January 29, 2010 Author Share Posted January 29, 2010 ... this spiral of negagtivity and doom and gloom is becoming a self fullfilling prophecy. Yes we're crap, yes none of us wants to go to Failsworth, but the question is do we want an Oldham Athletic or not? I know I do; so as I've done before I'll weather the storm and keep the faith that the good times will return. + 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lookers_Carl Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 In tonight's rarely wrong Chron: Boundary Park chief executive Alan Hardy admitted: “We realise the team is not playing good football. “I can’t criticise the fans for not enjoying it and we have to find a remedy. “But, while understanding their frustration, we need the fans’ support. “The more support we have, the more it will help the club’s financial situation.” http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-fea...o-stayaway-fans Shocker as club play the sympathy card yet again, haven't we heard this before???? This is getting a bit tiresome now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_b_100 Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 Not a personal dig at anyone but can we please drop this "entertaining football" line. We haven't had entertaining football at BP since we sold Neil Adams (Soccerbase - went to Norwich 17/02/94) and concentrated on staying in the Prem rather than entertaining the hard working public of Oldham. We have had 16 years of unmitigated dire football at BP yet the line about "entertaining football" has only been bandied about for about 18 months tops, it reared its head under Moore, disappeared under Shez and is now back like a bad smell. We are a small club at the bottom of the 3rd Division, to expect good entertaining football from that is madness - yes we can point to Rochdale who are sweeping all before them with goals from all over the pitch and our ex-player scoring his first league hatrick but that has come about by a manager building his side, getting lucky with O'Grady and using off the pitch methods that haven't even been seen in the Championship let alone Div 4. Hill is the equivalent of when we had Dowie and Harbin who were an exception to the norm then as Dale are today. We can't even get the basics right like passing the round white thing across the green flat thing to a man wearing the same colour shirt who is stood in a bit of space who can then move the ball forward and give it to another man wearing the same colour shirt who will put it past the man wearing gloves to cries of delight from the hordes of delighted home fans. It is going to be a long time until we see entertaining football at BP so we might as well forget about it for now. What we need to see is the opposite of entertaining football, we need simple effective football, unfortunately we can not even do this properly. We can't even do a high tempo pressing game with good agricultural hoofs from the back as these either go where the lookers should be or straight to their keeper as our forwards can not win a header if their lives depended on it. We are not going to get out of the bottom four playing the tippy-tappy one touch ole football that our prima-donnas are so keen on attempting. We really do have to go back to basics. + 1 with bells on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny punkster Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 Shocker as club play the sympathy card yet again, haven't we heard this before???? This is getting a bit tiresome now. quite... its like jekyll and hyde... barry on one hand,AH on the other. big mess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wardie Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 Spot on that, one of the things that got me hooked was the camaraderie between Latics fans, we really were a Band of Brothers in those days. Before the 'pinch me' years the team often struggled, but there was never any real cynicism from the fans towards the team or the club. These days the opposite is true and if I'm honest I think this board has a lot to do with it, we are constantly turning on each other and the club, and this spiral of negagtivity and doom and gloom is becoming a self fullfilling prophecy. Yes we're crap, yes none of us wants to go to Failsworth, but the question is do we want an Oldham Athletic or not? I know I do; so as I've done before I'll weather the storm and keep the faith that the good times will return. May I suggest a period of exile from this board may help some, I know it has me. You do have a point, there. The advent of the Internet and the Information Highway has given fans the opportunity to be closer to the club and each other. The flip side is that the club has to become an oracle of information. Fast, precise, honest and up-to-date...to the minute...to satisfy the the thirst for information that the fans' new found closeness requires. Message boards have become a soapbox for all fans alike, any club with an iota of sense will be monitoring the most popular forum connected to the relative football club. Whether or not they act upon the opinions of the fans is, in itself, debatable. The idea of abstinence from the message board is sensible, the urge to come on the board is, unfortunately, irresistible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diego_Sideburns Posted January 29, 2010 Author Share Posted January 29, 2010 (edited) it is different..we are EXPECTED to turn up week after week. if we don't, we get barry ,AH and TTA bleating on about it. if a certain artist made a load of crap albums, no one would turn up to his concerts to listen to it again...and they know it too. thats why huge bands/artists of today can churn out pretty average albums compared to their classic stuff, but continue to tour with the emphasis on just playing the crowd pleasers. in the end, even the hardcore fans get bored of this. The football club we consider to be ours and the other 71 Football League clubs are different from other forms of entertainment. The clubs are owned and managed by people who come and go, but they only survive on the loyalty of their supporters and the financial assistance from their owners. Success on the pitch comes to only about 11 of the 72 clubs each season and the supporters of the unsuccessful clubs are expected to continue to show their loyalty by putting money in their clubs in the form of STs, match tickets, lottery, merchandise, text services, etc. Yes they are expected to keep on doing it, even when there is little or no prospect of success, because of that loyalty. Not like aloyalty to a supermarket but loyalty that makes being a football supporter different from any other pastime/hobby/recreation/activity. When I first started watching Latics with my Dad, football clubs offered a sense of respite from hard manual labour and a collective celebration of their town. Blokes went straight from work and they all wore flat caps. Women didn't go. Social change is taking place faster than ever these days, but the strong connections football clubs still provide - the ways they offer a sense of rootedness and locality, even for exiles - is important for a lot of supporters who have lost the sort of connections to place provided by their work. Football clubs offer a collective and symbolic focus for a sense of belonging and pride in a local community. Some people have even described following football clubs as a neo-religious form of devotion. I’ve heard Joe Royle and Stitch described as ‘God’ and there is even a thread on here titled 'Diego Cervero = God' (not started by me!). Football offers an opportunity to socialise and share a camaraderie with like-minded people, and also let off steam and release stress which has built up between matches. It is also a good place for people to share adult leisure time with their children. We also know that some supporters may over-identify with their clubs, and they may see clubs as an extension of their self and invest too much, emotionally, in their teams. This can produce negative effects, including depressive behaviour or even violence. Suppoters can also become involved in rather 'addictive' behaviour in relation to their clubs - I plead guilty as charged re OWTB. For some of these supporters, defeat is probably felt too hard, and victory is almost too much of a 'high'. These are the real 'fanatics'. For some of these fans there might be a refusal to accept the role of mere 'supporter' and insist on fighting for the honour of the community, or the club, which they support. Naturally Clubs frown on supporters going as far as the latter, but they want their supporters to continue showing their loyalty in the form of putting money into their Club’s coffers, and supporters can only hope that the money is not wasted. In the case of Latics, it is obvious that there is a shortfall between income and expenditure which, if not met by supporters, has to be met by the owners, whether or not they are seen by supporters to be the right people at the present time. The people who possess the power to keep Latics alive and help it to grow are those who have stoppoed going to BP and/or stopped putting money into their Club. All adults go through phases in their life when income has to be spent on more important things than Latics, but those with income to spare are the ones to which the plea is directed. The Club has a tough job on its hands to convince enough people that the loyalty they once showed in the form of BP attendance can make a difference to the Club’s short-term survival and its long-term future. The Club is not alone in this predicament but we can take solace from the fact that the owners are not following the route marked 'Administration/liquidation'. Edited January 29, 2010 by Diego_Sideburns Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny punkster Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 nice write up and i agree with most of it. but to continue the way the club have over the last year isn't winning over many extras is it? and thats the whole point of it..the club send out a plea, but the stomachs of many have bloated. its like being kicked up the arse continually...is funny at first, then it becomes tiresome, then finally you snap. the club needs to step back and look at it all from the outside in for a change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirinclassic Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 Football clubs offer a collective and symbolic focus for a sense of belonging and pride in a local community. Hence why Failsworth will FAIL. Agree with all your other points, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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