Trust Letter to AL

[Andy b]

1 minute ago, kowenicki said:

 

Dont disagree. But money matters far more. Not good to hear, but it’s just a sad fact I’m afraid. A club can appear well run when money is thrown at it when in reality it just isn’t. 

 

(Oh... and no... Scholes wouldn’t have )

 

Lets hope we we can have both.  But if pushed, I’d take a big money owner over a perfectly run club at the moment. Unfortunately we appear to have neither. 

 

 

Yes money would be a game changer, guaranteed. In the meantime fans and the trust can only focus on what is in their power. Ie encouraging the current owner to take steps to make sure he is creating the conditions within the club which ensure it has a future and is able to achieve its full potential within its limited means.

[singe]

Pete giving us a shot of the play offs has changed things for me. 100% effort supporting the team.

But, the issues still  remain. 

Even if Abdallah answers, it's actions now. 

How about a different tack

Like when United had green and gold scarves as protest. I'm really sorry for bringing them up, and I don't mean copy, but a method of protesting without affecting the team and clearly directing our frustration. 

Edited April 6, 2019 by singe

[yarddog73]

2 hours ago, Andy b said:

Galvanising fans in any form when winning regularly on the pitch is more challenging I agree. 

 

 

2 hours ago, kowenicki said:

 

Whilst we remain in the hunt I’d say it’s impossible. 

My protest continues and I won't be stepping foot in BP any time soon, regardless of our League position.

[kowenicki]

1 minute ago, yarddog73 said:

 

My protest continues and I won't be stepping foot in BP any time soon, regardless of our League position.

 

Fine. Your choice. 

[kowenicki]

4 minutes ago, singe said:

Pete giving us a shot of the play offs has changed things for me. 100% effort supporting the teams.

But, the issues still are lilet to remain. 

Even if Abdallah answers, it's actions now. 

How about a different tack

Lie when United had green and gold scarves as protest. I'm really sorry for bringing them up, and I don't mean copy, but a method of protesting without affecting the team and clearly directing our frustration. 

 

Now you mention it.... have FCUM been relegated yet? .  The sooner that experiment ends the better. 

[another fan]

So it's late in the evening and please correct me if I am wrong but I appear to be hearing that if Latics win every game from now on, won promotion and started off next season like a house on fire then one or two would still not watch home games until the present owner had moved on.

 

[Andy b]

24 minutes ago, another fan said:

So it's late in the evening and please correct me if I am wrong but I appear to be hearing that if Latics win every game from now on, won promotion and started off next season like a house on fire then one or two would still not watch home games until the present owner had moved on.

 

Blackpool got promoted and it made little difference to their crowds. Boycott was maintained 

[Jack_The_Lad]

1 hour ago, kowenicki said:

 

Now you mention it.... have FCUM been relegated yet? .  The sooner that experiment ends the better. 

The protest in my eyes is simple ,  but has a few different options

all the home fans attend the Mansfield game dressed as clown or the trust purchase some blow up clowns and we wave them at Abdullah att the Mansfield game 

[yarddog73]

2 hours ago, another fan said:

So it's late in the evening and please correct me if I am wrong but I appear to be hearing that if Latics win every game from now on, won promotion and started off next season like a house on fire then one or two would still not watch home games until the present owner had moved on.

 

As it stands I'm not attending BP for the foreseeable,  easy for me as I pay on the day despite rarely missing a game. 

 

In my opinion you can't polish a turd and this guy 'running' the club is doing a shocking job of that, I will keep my powder dry though and see where The Trusts approach gets us, I'm hopeful he will eventually see sense and run the club in a way I personally feel he's morally obliged to do.

 

Time will tell.

[GlossopLatic]

6 hours ago, another fan said:

So it's late in the evening and please correct me if I am wrong but I appear to be hearing that if Latics win every game from now on, won promotion and started off next season like a house on fire then one or two would still not watch home games until the present owner had moved on.

 

 

That's probably not going to happen though. I mean we've won 3 on the spin winning, every game between now and the end of the domestic season would equal 9 on the spin, and then you would need to win 2 of the 3 games in the play offs as a minimum requirement so that would be 11 wins from 12 highly unlikely still from here.

 

Despite the last 3 wins I still think the owner is a twat.

 

 

Edited April 7, 2019 by GlossopLatic

[sjk2008]

7 hours ago, yarddog73 said:

As it stands I'm not attending BP for the foreseeable,  easy for me as I pay on the day despite rarely missing a game. 

 

In my opinion you can't polish a turd and this guy 'running' the club is doing a shocking job of that, I will keep my powder dry though and see where The Trusts approach gets us, I'm hopeful he will eventually see sense and run the club in a way I personally feel he's morally obliged to do.

 

Time will tell.

This

[LaticsLegend]

What's the trust's next move if he doesn't respond in a timely manner?

 

Can't wait forever so I assume there is a plan? Apologies in advance if I've missed it.

[kowenicki]

10 hours ago, Andy b said:

Blackpool got promoted and it made little difference to their crowds. Boycott was maintained 

 

Blackpool's boycott achieved nothing. 

 

Blackpool changed because one of the owners sued the other for millions and forced admin.  The absent and incumbent owners didn’t give a stuff about the boycott or the fans. I do wish people would stop using Blackpool as an example, it’s a really poor one for our situation. 

Edited April 7, 2019 by kowenicki

[Andy b]

5 minutes ago, kowenicki said:

 

Blackpool's boycott achieved nothing. 

 

Blackpool changed because one of the owners sued the other for millions and forced admin.  The absent and incumbent owners didn’t give a stuff about the boycott or the fans. I do wish people would stop using Blackpool as an example, it’s a really poor one for our situation. 

Didn’t say it did achieve anything and I am not promoting a boycott.

 

I merely pointed out that the boycott was maintained despite on the pitch success in response to someone questioning whether another poster would realistically maintain their personal boycott if we went up.

 

Point being that Blackpool’s protest was about the ownership and manner in which the club was run. They remained focused on the bigger picture despite success on the pitch.

 

 

[kowenicki]

1 minute ago, Andy b said:

Didn’t say it did achieve anything and I am not promoting a boycott.

 

I merely pointed out that the boycott was maintained despite on the pitch success in response to someone questioning whether another poster would realistically maintain their personal boycott if we went up.

 

Point being that Blackpool’s protest was about the ownership and manner in which the club was run. They remained focused on the bigger picture despite success on the pitch.

 

 

 

Yes they did, and yes it did achieve nothing.  You can’t just ignore that. People need to understand it’s limited effects. I’m not saying you are promoting it, but people may well look to you for leadership and direction if this progresses. Indeed they already are in this thread. 

 

The protests stated in early 2017 I believe over the alleged ‘theft’ of 90m from the club by Oyston and intensified when Oyston starting abusing and suing fans.  

 

The boycott finished a few weeks ago after Oyston lost control through admin forced by the foreign owner.  He didn’t do that because of a boycott, he did it because he wanted his share of the cash OUT of the club or Oyston. So 2 years of protests with zero results. 

 

Blackpool (and charlton) went to the EFL to complain about their protests not being listened to in early 2018. Nothing happened. EFL not interested. 

[Andy b]

2 minutes ago, kowenicki said:

 

Yes they did, and yes it did achieve nothing.  You can’t just ignore that. People need to understand it’s limited effects. I’m not saying you are promoting it, but people may well look to you for leadership and direction if this progresses. Indeed they already are in this thread. 

 

The protests stated in early 2017 I believe over the alleged ‘theft’ of 90m from the club by Oyston and intensified when Oyston starting abusing and suing fans.  

 

The boycott finished a few weeks ago after Oyston lost control through admin forced by the foreign owner.  He didn’t do that because of a boycott, he did it because he wanted his share of the cash OUT of the club or Oyston. So 2 years of protests with zero results. 

 

Blackpool (and charlton) went to the EFL to complain about their protests not being listened to in early 2018. Nothing happened. EFL not interested. 

Fair points you make.

 

nothing is off the table going forward though and whilst blackpool’s protest may not be directly responsible for their rebirth you have to admire their resilience and focus on trying to get their club back. They had a well defined cause which fans almost universally understood and bought into. The anomaly of a promotion didn’t blow them off course.

 

My overall point is that we need to focus on the bigger picture of how our club is run and it’s long term viability. Short term improvement on the pitch shouldn’t distract us though admitidly it might have a bearing on the steps we take and the way we go about furthering our cause.

 

horses for courses.

 

 

[underdog]

Regardless of the mood of the fans good or bad, the Trust have to push for its entitlement. We are here to try our best to ensure the club is being run in a fit and proper manner.

 

We are a partner, with equal partity voting at board level the Trust rep should be consulted about the health of the business and its staff.  There has no board or board meetings, or even any sort of updates for quite a while now.  

 

Minimum, as fans you should have piece of mind that the fan on the board is overseeing the business that is OAFC and we are in a better place. We are unable to do this currently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 7, 2019 by underdog

[kowenicki]

4 minutes ago, underdog said:

Regardless of the mood of the fans good or bad, the Trust have to push for its entitlement. We are here to try our best to ensure the club is being run in a fit and proper manner.

 

We are a partner, with equal partity voting at board level the Trust rep should be consulted about the health of the business and its staff.  There has no board or board meetings, or even any sort of updates for quite a while now.  

 

Minimum, as fans you should have piece of mind that the fan on the board is overseeing the business that is OAFC and we are in a better place. We are unable to do this currently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With respect, didn’t we have that under Corney? How did it help? 

 

 

Edited April 7, 2019 by kowenicki

[Andy b]

3 minutes ago, kowenicki said:

 

With respect, didn’t we have that under Corney? How did it help? 

 

 

New owner, new approach based on being more visible in what we are asking of the owner and open about whether we are getting that. Fan-led.

 

we need people to sign up to the trust to give us a louder voice though. 

[underdog]

5 minutes ago, kowenicki said:

 

With respect, didn’t we have that under Corney? How did it help? 

 

 

Under Corney we were very much alone. In no -mans land between doing whats best for the club and what we should let out in the public domain, especially social media responsible as there are people that work at the club.

 

Now we are members of Supporters Direct who have been involved in many clubs with regards to amicable owners and those that are not. They have the ear of the EFL and also legal advice we can access with regards to the fans entitlement. I am hoping we will not have to go down this route and the owner re-engages with the Trust soon. 

[Andy b]

2 hours ago, LaticsLegend said:

What's the trust's next move if he doesn't respond in a timely manner?

 

Can't wait forever so I assume there is a plan? Apologies in advance if I've missed it.

Not yet committed to a next move but options are on the table. Meeting tomorrow night. Something will be communicated thereafter.

 

thanks

Edited April 7, 2019 by Andy b

[Andy b]

Just now, Andy b said:

Not yet committed to a next move but options are on the table. Meeting tomorrow night. Something will be communicated thereafter.

 

thanks

Incidently, welcome views of others on next move.

 

Provisionally we have a fan meeting on or before 20th (as per the letter). That may go ahead even if AL doesn’t want to attend. 

[Ritchierich]

The funny thing about clubs our size is that the finances could be altered pretty quickly by getting an extra 500-1000 fans per home game....suddenly the club breaks even so the owner doesn’t need to subsidise.

 

This depends on the club being well organised and well run operationally in the first place which we don’t have at the moment and which is also difficult due to the dangerous structure with Brassbank/band and the other asset stripping entities.

 

I suppose what I’m saying is we have 2 clear choices...we can either disengage with the club and owners and work against them in the hope that a very wealthy and hopefully smart new owner will magically appear on the scene or, we can take a different tack and collectively decide to go all in with AL and to some extent the ex-amigos and try to turn the club around.

 

The Trust would need to re-invent itself as a bigger, more open, more forceful entity with the kind of regular, large scale fan meets and a focus on fan engagement. Can AL be pursuaded to sell a small percentage to fans for example....how many of us would be prepared to put in £100-£1000 for a tiny stake each? I would. 

 

Could we turn Latics into a fan owned (at least in part) and run club....it could be a dream scenario for AL, he gets to keep living the dream and we get to enjoy it like we should and be part of it.

 

Maybe this is all nonsense and we’re doomed but the 4,000 at Fulham and the amazing away support and passion for this little club tells me it still has something special and it’s not beyond saving

 

I didn’t go to Colchester yesterday like I would normally and I felt annoyed at myself, I don’t want to let the owners ruin our club but maybe AL just needs help and support and just doesn’t know how to do it. Was his request for non-execs a first recognition of this and an attempt to reach out?

 

One or two fan representatives on the Board is NOT the answer, we need large scale fan involvement, ownership and engagement, we need hundreds then thousands of Oldham fans to truly feel it is their club. 

 

 

[League one forever]

17 hours ago, deyres42 said:

Withdraw the letter until playoffs are mathematically impossible.

 

17 hours ago, deyres42 said:

He's not changing so for me you are either bothered now or you are not ever bothered.

 

16 hours ago, deyres42 said:

They can win every game from now for me, I wouldn't give a monkeys until Lemmy goes, don't quite get the mindset of those who carry on regardless but each to their own.

 

So where do you stand again? 

[yarddogs]

4 hours ago, LaticsLegend said:

What's the trust's next move if he doesn't respond in a timely manner?

 

Can't wait forever so I assume there is a plan? Apologies in advance if I've missed it.

Tar and feathers