Time for Corney to intervene?

[oafc1955]

Yes, it is boringly predictable just like the football!!

I'm not expecting us to batter teams week in week out but half a dozen decent home performances in two seasons isn't what I expected either!!

 

I'm sorry, but under Dickov we are not progressing, if anything we are going backwards.

We are in the same league position now as we have finished in the previous two seasons.

 

We have the best squad he has had since taking the job ( Dickov's words ) in what is arguably a much weaker division this time around.

 

Apart from the poor quality football, Ronnie Moore was sacked because of dwindling crowds, Penney went because he couldn't connect with the fans, however with one or two exceptions the football under Dickov has been just as bad as anything we saw under those two!

 

As I've said in a previous thread, we have over 1000 junior ticket holders this season and can still only muster up crowds of around 3000 even after a reasonable run.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see our crowd average drop below 3000 during the second half of the season which would be a total disaster.

 

Leaving at half time or going to the pub halfway through the second half tells a story. Supporters have had enough and are voting with their feet.

 

How much longer can we afford to wait for something that isn't going to happen........

[jsslatic]

Are we going to do the "Dickov out" dance every time we lose? It wasn't very good on Saturday, only a couple of players turned up and we deservedly lost the game. The difference between us and Swindon wasn't much, same as when we've played any of the better sides in this league but you can not get a result when so many of our team have the proverbial bad day at the office.

 

When we win it is just a stay of execution for the bloke and then when we lose the knives are out again. It it is to be the case I hope he does go so that we can all get stuck in to the new manager, the ineffectual cretin that he will be. We're stuck in some perverse routine of self-flagellation, not enjoying the wins and only enjoying the defeats so we can go through another blood letting.

 

When we win the other side are crap or have half their team out or it is due to a special player doing something out of the ordinary or luck. When we lose it is all the manager's fault, the other team were still crap but we were so much worse. It is boringly predictable now.

 

A tip of the cap to you, sir. Bang on.

[opinions4u]

From what I recall, not many people have called for Dickov to be fired off since the Swindon performance.

[Guest Scratch2000uk]

We could say the same for the happy with the current set-up people on here couldn't we? , Lets take a snapshot of the good results, which are, in all honesty few and far between and ignore the bigger picture, Dwindling crowds, low morale, inconsistency, lack of tactical nous and what's being seen in the dugouts when things are going wrong, etc,

I want it to work for him and us, i like the fella and i think most could agree. We all love the wins and good runs but some are worried about the longer term effects this management team are having on the club, and it's seemingly inability to change things.

 

I haven't seen anyone baying for blood either, maybe i missed a post somewhere?

[Lags]

This club has much bigger problems than the manager. The mind set within what was once the 6000 hard core is now so low or of the belief that Latics can never attain even second tier football again is massive. The feeling of hopelessness from one knock to the next. From the last false dawn to the one on the horizon. Christ folks are even doubting the next dawning before we even know what it is, which is understandable given experiences gained from the past. This is now so evident every match played at BP, no belief in that creating an atmosphere will have any affect or hope, dwindling numbers entering a falling down ground. Decay all around in every aspect.

 

Yes we've had a 5 game or so decent run but all the false dawns have taken there toll on a tired and weary band of followers. When the next abject performance arrives, the kick to the bollocks no longer hurts, the bollocks are numb, so the followers lash out at the manager. whoever the manager is, the one constant is the club.

 

So for me get the club right first and just maybe the manager stands a chance.

[beag_teeets]

I agree with you Lags. What I wonder though is is it any different at other clubs at our (current) level? We've had other teams booing substitutions at BP, Bury have had their embargo, Pompey's troubles, we've seen Leeds, both Sheffield clubs and Forest in our league, other teams have passed us one way only to then pass us going the other. Can't ignore other teams that are truly on the up, the Lashers, Hudds, Brighton, Dongs and Crawley, all have been regular visitors to BP in recent years but can be considered currently better off than we are, not just financially.

 

That leaves a hell of a lot of other clubs treading water, high turn over of players, not filling their grounds, surviving one season to the next flogging their best players or losing them to Bosmans, the same picture we have been watching at BP. I don't think our problems are unique to us, they are facing all of the same issues we are, granted most of them have 4 stands but that is just one more stand that doesn't get utilised fully.

 

The professional game at our level is struggling for many reasons, mostly external to the game, mostly financial. The "product" being provided by league clubs is worse than supermarket own brand battery produced chicken compared to the luxury free range, hand fed exotic breed chicken being sold by most TV exposed clubs. We're now competing against Shalke, PSG, Utd, Chelsea, Makalaladoodah, Barca & Real Madrid and we come up very short, it is little wonder our fan base is dwindling when you compare what is on offer at BP to the type of football it is possible to watch with very little effort. Even when you compare football at a comparable level we come up short, our best player from the last few seasons can't even get a game at a team being cast adrift at the bottom of the championship.

 

Some of the problems we face are of our own making, football in general, not just OAFC, us fans are seen as customers and consumers rather than valued customers who have to be wooed across the threshold, we're taken for granted who will turn up come what may. Battered wives almost, we keep thinking better days are round the corner and that we can change our partner's ways and get back to the loving relationship we once had but those better days are gone never to come back. I don't mean those old rituals of pints in the Clayton before seeing Ritchie and Bunn tear teams apart I mean the local football team filling the ground on a Saturday as the local community comes together to enjoy the journey through the divisions with a chance of winning it one day. Financial fair play, fit and proper person tests, Bosman, transer windows, points deductions, TV money, all seater stadiums, product, outsourced catering, corporate sponsorship, adverts on the website, clicks, highlights programme starting at midnight after the glory boys have had their shot, no Pink final as it isn't cost effective, griping on message boards, green boots, sleeve tattoos on reserve fullbacks, centre backs with daft hairstyles, 4th division players earning more than a bloke grafting hard for 6 days a week. I'm rambling badly but all this has changed football in our lifetime and it isn't going to change back into the game that many of us grew up with.

 

Some fans, probably the sensible ones have drifted away and in all honesty I can't blame them. As Lags says, most of us don't feel the kick any more, I know I don't. My wife asked how the game was when I got home and I told her we were lucky to get nil and that was that, gone, over with. When we win it is the same, might have a bit more spring in my step but by the time I have my tea on a Saturday it is over with whatever has happened. A lot of the enjoyment has gone out of the game, it is all far more serious than it used to be, every stray pass is greeted by groans and "bloody hells" as if it is a personal insult, the demeanour of the fitness coach is analysed, even the value of the bleeding teaboy is dissected.

 

I've forgotten where I was going with this post and nor do I have any solutions. I don't see a great future for Latics beyond what we currently have. Bottom half of Championship at best if we can get and keep hold of a group of players long enough for them to truly gel and become a force to be reckoned with. Royle's team took years to form and shape, managers these days don't get that due to Bosman and itchy trigger fingers on chairmen, us fans are less patient too. What happens in the planning committee of OMBC and how good a salesman Corney is to attract investment for the new stand are of more importance than what happens on the pitch and will be so for at least the next 3 seasons. Until that stand is up and we can get non-football related revenue in we are treading water whilst holding big lumps of concrete and lead boots. Whether there will be any fans to sit in the other 3 stands by the time it is up remains to be seen.

 

Being optimistic, we get the sugar daddy lunatic owner who throws money at us and we go on to become the most successive club in the North west.

 

Being pessimistic, lets say Corney, Blitz and Gazal have done us all for fools and are executing their plan brilliantly, driving the fans off in droves whilst waiting for the covenant to run out on the land. Lack of investment and attention on the playing side sees us relegated once and at the bottom of division 4 with only me and my dog turning out to watch games. I still can't see them getting planning permission for a development on the land? We can't get investment for a going concern on there as it is and in this economic climate, now scheduled to get even worse until 2018 I can't see where the investment would come from to line TTA's pockets. Compared to this continuing to make OAFC a going concern makes far more business sense than running us into the ground if they want to get a return. Whilst we are where we are or above we are much more attractive to a potential new buyer.

 

Out of the above 3 scenarios, all or which are a bit far fetched the new stand one appears most likely but even then the end point is still only getting into the championship and staying there. What happens on the pitch is of such little importance compared to what happens on it I can't get too downhearted or upbeat about what happens during games or whether a new manager would change anything? We might get a few more wins and possibly challenge for the play-offs but in the long term it changes nothing.

[GlossopLatic]

This club has much bigger problems than the manager. The mind set within what was once the 6000 hard core is now so low or of the belief that Latics can never attain even second tier football again is massive. The feeling of hopelessness from one knock to the next. From the last false dawn to the one on the horizon. Christ folks are even doubting the next dawning before we even know what it is, which is understandable given experiences gained from the past. This is now so evident every match played at BP, no belief in that creating an atmosphere will have any affect or hope, dwindling numbers entering a falling down ground. Decay all around in every aspect.

 

Yes we've had a 5 game or so decent run but all the false dawns have taken there toll on a tired and weary band of followers. When the next abject performance arrives, the kick to the bollocks no longer hurts, the bollocks are numb, so the followers lash out at the manager. whoever the manager is, the one constant is the club.

 

So for me get the club right first and just maybe the manager stands a chance.

 

Nail on the head Lags couldn't have put that better myself.

[NewBlue]

I agree with you Lags. What I wonder though is is it any different at other clubs at our (current) level? We've had other teams booing substitutions at BP, Bury have had their embargo, Pompey's troubles, we've seen Leeds, both Sheffield clubs and Forest in our league, other teams have passed us one way only to then pass us going the other. Can't ignore other teams that are truly on the up, the Lashers, Hudds, Brighton, Dongs and Crawley, all have been regular visitors to BP in recent years but can be considered currently better off than we are, not just financially.

 

That leaves a hell of a lot of other clubs treading water, high turn over of players, not filling their grounds, surviving one season to the next flogging their best players or losing them to Bosmans, the same picture we have been watching at BP. I don't think our problems are unique to us, they are facing all of the same issues we are, granted most of them have 4 stands but that is just one more stand that doesn't get utilised fully.

 

The professional game at our level is struggling for many reasons, mostly external to the game, mostly financial. The "product" being provided by league clubs is worse than supermarket own brand battery produced chicken compared to the luxury free range, hand fed exotic breed chicken being sold by most TV exposed clubs. We're now competing against Shalke, PSG, Utd, Chelsea, Makalaladoodah, Barca & Real Madrid and we come up very short, it is little wonder our fan base is dwindling when you compare what is on offer at BP to the type of football it is possible to watch with very little effort. Even when you compare football at a comparable level we come up short, our best player from the last few seasons can't even get a game at a team being cast adrift at the bottom of the championship.

 

Some of the problems we face are of our own making, football in general, not just OAFC, us fans are seen as customers and consumers rather than valued customers who have to be wooed across the threshold, we're taken for granted who will turn up come what may. Battered wives almost, we keep thinking better days are round the corner and that we can change our partner's ways and get back to the loving relationship we once had but those better days are gone never to come back. I don't mean those old rituals of pints in the Clayton before seeing Ritchie and Bunn tear teams apart I mean the local football team filling the ground on a Saturday as the local community comes together to enjoy the journey through the divisions with a chance of winning it one day. Financial fair play, fit and proper person tests, Bosman, transer windows, points deductions, TV money, all seater stadiums, product, outsourced catering, corporate sponsorship, adverts on the website, clicks, highlights programme starting at midnight after the glory boys have had their shot, no Pink final as it isn't cost effective, griping on message boards, green boots, sleeve tattoos on reserve fullbacks, centre backs with daft hairstyles, 4th division players earning more than a bloke grafting hard for 6 days a week. I'm rambling badly but all this has changed football in our lifetime and it isn't going to change back into the game that many of us grew up with.

 

Some fans, probably the sensible ones have drifted away and in all honesty I can't blame them. As Lags says, most of us don't feel the kick any more, I know I don't. My wife asked how the game was when I got home and I told her we were lucky to get nil and that was that, gone, over with. When we win it is the same, might have a bit more spring in my step but by the time I have my tea on a Saturday it is over with whatever has happened. A lot of the enjoyment has gone out of the game, it is all far more serious than it used to be, every stray pass is greeted by groans and "bloody hells" as if it is a personal insult, the demeanour of the fitness coach is analysed, even the value of the bleeding teaboy is dissected.

 

I've forgotten where I was going with this post and nor do I have any solutions. I don't see a great future for Latics beyond what we currently have. Bottom half of Championship at best if we can get and keep hold of a group of players long enough for them to truly gel and become a force to be reckoned with. Royle's team took years to form and shape, managers these days don't get that due to Bosman and itchy trigger fingers on chairmen, us fans are less patient too. What happens in the planning committee of OMBC and how good a salesman Corney is to attract investment for the new stand are of more importance than what happens on the pitch and will be so for at least the next 3 seasons. Until that stand is up and we can get non-football related revenue in we are treading water whilst holding big lumps of concrete and lead boots. Whether there will be any fans to sit in the other 3 stands by the time it is up remains to be seen.

 

Being optimistic, we get the sugar daddy lunatic owner who throws money at us and we go on to become the most successive club in the North west.

 

Being pessimistic, lets say Corney, Blitz and Gazal have done us all for fools and are executing their plan brilliantly, driving the fans off in droves whilst waiting for the covenant to run out on the land. Lack of investment and attention on the playing side sees us relegated once and at the bottom of division 4 with only me and my dog turning out to watch games. I still can't see them getting planning permission for a development on the land? We can't get investment for a going concern on there as it is and in this economic climate, now scheduled to get even worse until 2018 I can't see where the investment would come from to line TTA's pockets. Compared to this continuing to make OAFC a going concern makes far more business sense than running us into the ground if they want to get a return. Whilst we are where we are or above we are much more attractive to a potential new buyer.

 

Out of the above 3 scenarios, all or which are a bit far fetched the new stand one appears most likely but even then the end point is still only getting into the championship and staying there. What happens on the pitch is of such little importance compared to what happens on it I can't get too downhearted or upbeat about what happens during games or whether a new manager would change anything? We might get a few more wins and possibly challenge for the play-offs but in the long term it changes nothing.

 

 

Fantastic post and unfortunately what you say is almost exactly true but if we are all to have this mentality then we'll never progress.

 

With on-field success comes growth of the club and a better opportunity to have a more enjoyable experience as a fan. It won't ever be the same again but it can get better and that's what should motivate us, granted, it is tough having been in League 1 for 16 years.

 

Just have to hope.

Edited December 18, 2012 by NewBlue

[oafcmetty]

Just have to hope.

Exactly. And every year we spend in the championship, the greater the chance of us having a 'fluke' year a la Burnley/Blackpool - go up via the playoffs, one season of getting twatted, and £50m in the bank - thanks very much. There's always hope.

[longtimeblue]

Some bang on long posts... The root and branch phrase springs to mind. It's sad but the club's rotten to the core. It won't be the solution and I didn't even think I'd ever consider it to be an issue (certainly not an excuse for some of the inept displays this season) but the new stand's needed, even just to spruce the place up a bit. Gives us something to build on but there's always hope. whilst it's as :censored: as its been in my lifetime at the moment, things can change quickly... Blind faith again the moment though