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Trust statement on Joe Royle/North Stand closure


underdog

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This is the most recent update from The Trust and it includes,

 

"We are heartened by the Club's second statement indicating that the aim is to resolve the issues (i.e. North Stand closure) urgently and ... in time for the Mansfield match."

 

Seriously, why don't you fold The Trust and encourage everyone to get behind PTB who, at least, seem to have their finger on the pulse?

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10 hours ago, wiseowl said:

This is the most recent update from The Trust and it includes,

 

"We are heartened by the Club's second statement indicating that the aim is to resolve the issues (i.e. North Stand closure) urgently and ... in time for the Mansfield match."

 

Seriously, why don't you fold The Trust and encourage everyone to get behind PTB who, at least, seem to have their finger on the pulse?

The Trust is not stopping anyone getting behind PTB. Nor is it splitting fans or competing for support, which I think is what you are alluding to. 

 

What purpose does folding the trust serve? 

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14 hours ago, Andy b said:

The Trust is not stopping anyone getting behind PTB. Nor is it splitting fans or competing for support, which I think is what you are alluding to. 

 

What purpose does folding the trust serve? 

I won't write war and peace but I feel :-

 

1. Trust Oldham purports to represent the fans of Oldham Athletic; it doesn't - it represents its own membership. It therefore wrongly has influence with the likes of the FSA. If it represented the fans of Oldham Athletic, its membership numbers would be in the thousands in the current time of turmoil; it isn't and you would have to question why not?

 

2. When I speak to other fans, there is consensus that the Trust seems to act in deference to the owners. Exactly the opposite of what people feel is required in the current climate. Many say they see no benefit of having a Trust rep on the Board.

 

3. As the fan base becomes ever more eroded, one fans' group with a specific goal that it stuck to would, in my opinion, be the sensible way forward.  

 

4. It's about mixed messages too. The message coming out from Trust Oldham is that "things aren't too bad". Thousands of Latics fans would disagree strongly with that.

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9 minutes ago, wiseowl said:

I won't write war and peace but I feel :-

 

1. Trust Oldham purports to represent the fans of Oldham Athletic; it doesn't - it represents its own membership. It therefore wrongly has influence with the likes of the FSA. If it represented the fans of Oldham Athletic, its membership numbers would be in the thousands in the current time of turmoil; it isn't and you would have to question why not?

 

2. When I speak to other fans, there is consensus that the Trust seems to act in deference to the owners. Exactly the opposite of what people feel is required in the current climate. Many say they see no benefit of having a Trust rep on the Board.

 

3. As the fan base becomes ever more eroded, one fans' group with a specific goal that it stuck to would, in my opinion, be the sensible way forward.  

 

4. It's about mixed messages too. The message coming out from Trust Oldham is that "things aren't too bad". Thousands of Latics fans would disagree strongly with that.

It doesn’t ‘have influence with the FSA’. It uses the FSA as an advisor because it owns part of the club. At the very least, it is a group of fans which has a legal stake in the club. You don’t just abandon that, even if it’s not using it very effectively at the current time.

 

PTB are FSA members and use that group in a similar way. The trust doesn’t have a monopoly on the FSA.

 

We have spoken at length about the trust. I personally am pleased to see a group form which occupies the space which the trust isn’t well placed to. Very importantly there is no conflict or tension there. 

 

Believing the trust serves no purpose is one thing. Advocating that it folds is another. Why should it fold out of interest?  Is it holding PTB or another group back in some way? 

 

I can see the case for withdrawing if the trust’s structure and status held it back AND an alternative group sitting separately to the trust wasn’t able to gain any momentum because of splitting the fans (ie brexit party not putting candidates in certain seats etc) but that’s not the case here.

 

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"Now we've got that many splinter groups all wanting to deliver slightly different messages it's getting confusing."

 

Andy, the above quote is from a post of Lags' yesterday and perhaps best illustrates my point. To be fair to the owner, it must be getting really confusing for him too i.e. who does he think best represents the fans of Oldham Athletic? Who carries most weight? Who should he listen to? What does he do when he gets conflicting messages from Trust Oldham and PTB?

 

The club/board appear to be acting in unison but the fans are anything but.

 

My honest opinion is that Trust Oldham hopelessly failed the fans in their time of need and, in the absence of any coherent plan/effective action by Trust Oldham, the void simply had to be filled by someone else - and along came PTB. Trust Oldham have often lacked a consistency of message (e.g. we back the boycott.... err, no we don't, we've changed our minds - again). To many outsiders they appear weak and without an effective strategy.

 

I said at the time of PTB forming, that Trust Oldham should look to merge with it in some form (and see if both their objectives aligned with FLG too) so that there was one genuine body representing disenchanted fans (and I appreciate some fans aren't disenchanted with mediocre 4th division football and crowds of around 3,000).

 

When studying the history of conflicts, generally speaking, the side who acts in unison will defeat the side who doesn't; so presently the fans have little chance.

 

Trust Oldham's 3% shareholding seems sacrosanct. Again, many outside of Trust Oldham see it as a huge millstone around its neck. That's why I think it should be folded in its present form and morph into something far more effective via a merger with PTB (and possibly FLG).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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