losesome Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 so we hopefully stay in league one for next season , In the summer LJ finds 2 or 3 really good players to bring in and hopefully build a team around.January comes and financial pressure means we have to sell these players. Where does it stop and how can LJ possibly build a team !!!!!!!! The future to me looks very very bleak and after 50 years (40 years a S/T holder) i am as depressed about the future now than at any time previous. Unless LJ proves to be a JR then league 2 survival is all we have to look forward to in the next few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yarddog73 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 looks like im not alone with my thoughts then afterall only been going 30 years but this is about as low as its been, think the difference is in the past ive always had hope but the way things have panned out this season have proved to me that we have zero ambition, dread to think where we would be without cup runs and assets to sell which is where we may be next season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBigDog Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 I too have started to question the future of the club and for the first time in 48 years of following Latics my commitment has started to fall away. This season started with so much optimism that at last we would look to bring some stability to the squad and build for the future - however as the season has progressed this has once again proved to be a false dawn. I am not naive enough to believe that we will ever get back to the heights we once scaled but once again early promise has given away to the current slump. And I accept that we will continue to be a selling club - but ambition comes with a price. There are many reasons that have contributed to the position we find ourselves in - poor form, selling our better players, poor team and squad management and the dilapidated state of the stadium. It is a depressing spiral we find ourselves in - poor results on the pitch mean poor crowds off the pitch which in turn forces the club to sell. Home attendance is down to 3,500 and will only continue to fall. I make the 400 mile round trip every second week but for how much longer I'm not sure. So what will be different next season? On the evidence so far, the only difference I can envisage is that we will be playing our football in a different division. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBosch Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 (edited) looks like im not alone with my thoughts then afterall only been going 30 years but this is about as low as its been, lower than administration? Edited March 11, 2014 by HarryBosch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stainrod Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Contentious one this. I know that when we dropped from the Premiership we hoped we might bounce back but thought that we would once again be a solid tier two team and then when we dropped to league one we expected a swift return or certainly to operate at the top end and that didn't work out either, BUT, Surely we will be a successful club in league two if the worst came to the worst. Would this be that bad? My first days of supporting Latics came when we won the old Ford Sporting league back in the day, we had a really successful team, were fantastic at Boundary Park, rarely lost, scored lots of goals and won fans over. At the time I also followed Chelsea (they won the cup in 1970 and the Cup Winners cup in '71, that's what kids do) and so I used to get my dad to take me to City and Utd when they travelled North. Bear in mind this was the days of Best, Law and Charlton, Bell, Lee and Summerbee, and Osgood, Hudson and Hutchinson and which team did I pick....Oldham. The reason for that was that they were winning every time I saw them and scoring goals. My lad is 17 now and has given up because they have been in this league all his life!! We have lost a generation and maybe we need to drop, regroup have a bit of success in order attract a few new supporters who, like me, will be bitten by the Latics bug. The last thing I want is to go down this year but you have to admit it's becoming so boring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yarddog73 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 lower than administration? yes I feel worse now than when we went through administration, then I had optimism now thinking about where we are just fills me with dread, how is anything going to change ? its fair to say there isnt going to be any great change to the finances of the club regardless of money generated through cup runs or player sales, any player who shows any improvement is going to be sold on so its difficult to see how any manager is going to be able to build a team with the constraints he is under, people may read it as negativity but I suppose after years of unwaivered loyalty I am beginning to question myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBosch Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 yes I feel worse now than when we went through administration each to their own Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorrro Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 its fair to say there isnt going to be any great change to the finances of the club regardless of money generated through cup runs or player sales, any player who shows any improvement is going to be sold on so its difficult to see how any manager is going to be able to build a team with the constraints he is under, people may read it as negativity but I suppose after years of unwaivered loyalty I am beginning to question myself. I don't see this as negativity. I see this as a perfectly normal train of thought. Which is why it irks me when you and others shortsightedly have a dig at Johnson/Dickov/Moore et al for not getting us promoted. It runs far, far deeper than the bloke sat in the manager's office. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_ktf Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Contentious one this. I know that when we dropped from the Premiership we hoped we might bounce back but thought that we would once again be a solid tier two team and then when we dropped to league one we expected a swift return or certainly to operate at the top end and that didn't work out either, BUT, Surely we will be a successful club in league two if the worst came to the worst. Would this be that bad? My first days of supporting Latics came when we won the old Ford Sporting league back in the day, we had a really successful team, were fantastic at Boundary Park, rarely lost, scored lots of goals and won fans over. At the time I also followed Chelsea (they won the cup in 1970 and the Cup Winners cup in '71, that's what kids do) and so I used to get my dad to take me to City and Utd when they travelled North. Bear in mind this was the days of Best, Law and Charlton, Bell, Lee and Summerbee, and Osgood, Hudson and Hutchinson and which team did I pick....Oldham. The reason for that was that they were winning every time I saw them and scoring goals. My lad is 17 now and has given up because they have been in this league all his life!! We have lost a generation and maybe we need to drop, regroup have a bit of success in order attract a few new supporters who, like me, will be bitten by the Latics bug. The last thing I want is to go down this year but you have to admit it's becoming so boring. That last line is everything to me. Have all the arguments you want about players or managers- the best bit about Saturdays is the pub before an after the game, an has been for a 3/4 seasons now. Our games for the vast majority time are so dull. I sit there, an find myself watching the paddock wind up oppo subs, or watching the bench an taking the piss with my mate about something. Getting my phone out. Picking my nose. Anything but watch the utter dullness of the game. I kno what league we're in, but plenty of sides still TRY to play. We just seem to play defensive, negative, dare not lose football. Which is awful to watch. An to answer the OP. Nothing will change. That's what's so depressing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimsleftfoot Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 That last line is everything to me. Have all the arguments you want about players or managers- the best bit about Saturdays is the pub before an after the game, an has been for a 3/4 seasons now. Our games for the vast majority time are so dull. I sit there, an find myself watching the paddock wind up oppo subs, or watching the bench an taking the piss with my mate about something. Getting my phone out. Picking my nose. Anything but watch the utter dullness of the game. I kno what league we're in, but plenty of sides still TRY to play. We just seem to play defensive, negative, dare not lose football. Which is awful to watch. An to answer the OP. Nothing will change. That's what's so depressing. I don't want us to go down, but Scunny are having a more exciting season than us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pukka Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 I don't want us to go down, but Scunny are having a more exciting season than us. _--------------------------------------------------- are portsmouth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oafcmetty Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 If we go down it'll be another excuse to 'cut the cloth' and we'll keep sinking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wardie Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 I don't want us to go down, but Scunny are having a more exciting season than us. Like driving a car, you have to drop down a gear in order to gain momentum and overtake the car in front. I am not saying that relegation is a preferred option, but I also do not believe that it would be the disaster that finishes the club off. I don't think the loyal hardcore of fans would desert the club and if..the big "if"..the team that Johnson assembles during the close-season gets off to a flyer and pulls in some decent results, more stay-away fans would return to watch..if only out of natural instinct or curiosity. It's a stupid line of reasoning, I know that, but after 26 years and 17 of them in Div Two/ League One, the cycle of managers, false dawns (no offence, if your name is Dawn) and frustrating performances on the pitch, I can't see any other way. The good side is, that the club is not crippled with debt, faced with liquidation and has the green shoots of recovery in the form of the new stand and maybe, just maybe, some managerial stability. Let's take it from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveecky Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Can't see anything changing - we seem to be round about our natural level. Players change every year. How many good players re-sign with Latics when their contract runs down. That's because they are professions doing a job for the best contract they can get within a team that's likely to be winning. No-one who plays football wants to play in a losing team, just as most of us don't want to work in a job we hate if there's the possibility of somewhere better. Each year we recruit a mixture of the desperate (released or out of contract), the ambitious who think we are a step up from non-league or reserve teams, loanees getting game time with something to prove and the ones who foolishly are taken in by promises that they are getting in on the start of a wonderful revolution. And when it starts to go wrong then in come more loanees, often untested in league one football but cheap. The only thing which has prevented falling further is that there are a lot of clubs in the lower divisions in exactly the same circumstances. We can't expect much more from the size and current status of the club - and we're unlikely to be targeted by a rich benefactor - thankfully I was around in the Royle glory years so at least I've some great memories to cling to but I'm not sure this generation of fans are going to see even modest glory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorrro Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Please can people stop downplaying the catastrophic impact relegation would have on the club, lest they get what they wish for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_ktf Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Please can people stop downplaying the catastrophic impact relegation would have on the club, lest they get what they wish for. I don't want to go down for one minute. I just want a fair shaire of decent football to watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oh Heck C-Beck Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Please can people stop downplaying the catastrophic impact relegation would have on the club, lest they get what they wish for. Why can other teams cope though and we can't? To me that is admitting we are punching above our weight now if relegation is the final nail in the coffin as some people suggest. The current situation is not good at all and eventually we will go through that trap door. Like it or not we need more investment to be competitive at this level which is not forthcoming at this moment in time. Personally I think it whether or not it is catastrophic completely depends on how big our hardcore support really is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimsleftfoot Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 I don't want us to go down, but Scunny are having a more exciting season than us. _--------------------------------------------------- are portsmouth? Yes they probably are, though for entirely different reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorrro Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Why can other teams cope though and we can't? No one really knows. There is no guarantee that we - or anyone else - will cope. It's a risk I'd rather we didn't take. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave_Og Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Why can other teams cope though and we can't? there are plenty that can't - just take a look through the clubs that make up Conference and Conf North. Tehre are 13 ex-league clubs in the conference and 5 in conf north by my reckoning. Interestingly none at all in conf south Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yarddog73 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 would it be that bad are we not on a similar level to rochdale now ? if we go down nothing will change financially some have even claimed crowds will go up, the wages we are paying our squad players isnt far off what players in the conference, it makes you wonder where our level in the football league is I always thought we had a club that could be sustainable in the Championship but maybe league 2 is where we should be, budget, facilities and home gates would probably confirm that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzlatic Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 There would be a drop off in away attendances as there are fewer big clubs in the league below. Would we have to reduce season ticket prices? Maybe. The new stand may help but would funding for this drop off if we were relegated? I'm not against us going down purely from the idea of us possibly challenging at the top next year - for something different if nothing else! But there's just far too much doubt about what'd happen if we did. I don't think it'd be catastrophic but I do think there would be enough change financially to mean we wouldn't be sure of a promotion challenge and expectations/ambitions could change over time. Imagine 17 years in league 2! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losesome Posted March 11, 2014 Author Share Posted March 11, 2014 Quite a few think if we go down then next season will be better etc etc.This is just more false hope , IF we go down we will struggle in league 2. The Skrill league is full of teams that thought exactly the same. Latics will cut the cloth accordingly yet again and it will lead to more years of fighting to stay in that league. The base for Latics to build on is here and now in league one and if we don't then we wont do it from league 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimsleftfoot Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Please can people stop downplaying the catastrophic impact relegation would have on the club, lest they get what they wish for. If it's a cert that it will be catastrophic, we are f****d anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorrro Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 If it's a cert that it will be catastrophic, we are f****d anyway. Most likely. But let's not hasten our demise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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