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BPAS PODCAST SEASON 2: 26th Jul '21 Episode 42: David Wheater


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We're kicking off series two with special guest David Wheater. The former Latics captain didn't kick a ball for the whole of the 2020/21 season due to a dispute with the club. This is his side of the story...

 

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Follow the show on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook @oafcpodcast.

 

You can find out more about Push The Boundary by visiting them at https://pushtheboundary.co.uk/ and following on Twitter @PTB_OAFC

 

Title music is by Manchester DJ and producer Starion find out more at https://redlaserrecords.bandcamp.com/

 

 

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52 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

No doubt he was treated shabbily but I'll never get my head around someone of his standing opting to sit out 18 months and counting of a career. Does he mention wanting to carry on playing?

 

52 minutes ago, deyres42 said:

No doubt he was treated shabbily but I'll never get my head around someone of his standing opting to sit out 18 months and counting of a career. Does he mention wanting to carry on playing?

Have a listen...

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Another really good interview.

I've not heard Wheater speak before so wasn't sure what to expect from him but he sounds like a really great, down to earth bloke. 

There's no doubt being the conduit between club and players left him in an extremely difficult situation, especially once the goal posts started shifting around. 

It seems that at a senior level in the club there was / is no joined up strategy, thinking or communications whatsoever, with the owners, Barry, Natalie and then Karl all contradicting each other. I think they are making it up as they go along and anyone caught in the middle of that gets spit out.

Once again I'm just left with a sense of shame and embarrassment that my club treats people this way and anger that our reputation is slowly being poisoned throughout the game.

 

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Wasn't much in there that we didn't already know TBH. The club do have a duty of care when it comes to mental health and bullying with employees. They've (unsurprisingly) fell well short on that with DW and presumably others. Have to say, it was telling that he couldn't bring himself to call Shitpeas as he'd asked him to and although Barry wasn't directly involved with the shenanigans that DW endured, he knew he was part of that regime that allowed it to happen. Fair play on DW for that.

 

I get the feeling the owners played hard with DW to force him away to accept a loan deal somewhere. He didn't and, well, lets just say it got very messy from that point onwards. 

 

I'm not a DW fan an by any stretch (he's a bit of a plodder and I'd much rather Peter Clarke than him). But I have every sympathy for the shite he had a put up with during his time with us. Good luck to him after his "come on get me" plea to Hartlepool.

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Another great listen, many thanks for doing these podcasts. 

I feel totally isolated from the club these days, being 150 miles away is only part of that issue, but most part is that the club just doesnt feel right anymore, I have have fond memories of a family and community club growing up in the 70s,80s & 90s.

To see it being run into the ground by these charletons who have no regard or morals is really saddening.

DW was treated badly and I agree with him regarding HK not challenging them.

I wish I could do something but I'm not a business man nor am I wealthy.

And thats what we need, someone or a group of dedicated and grounded people with the business skills and wealth to get these clowns out.

 

 

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18 hours ago, Luis Enrique said:

Another really good interview.

 

14 hours ago, maximus1267 said:

Another great listen, many thanks for doing these podcasts. 

 

Thanks & you're welcome. There's more to come, we've got loads planned. Please help us do the work we do by visiting https://www.oafcpodcast.co.uk/ subscribing and looking in our online shop.

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11 minutes ago, BPAS said:

 

 

Thanks & you're welcome. There's more to come, we've got loads planned. Please help us do the work we do by visiting https://www.oafcpodcast.co.uk/ subscribing and looking in our online shop.


Any chance of getting Blitz on - he got it very easy on his last podcast and he’s just as guilty for our current position as anyone

 

and Corney 

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Just now, Chaddyexile84 said:

Any chance of getting Blitz on - he got it very easy on his last podcast and he’s just as guilty for our current position as anyone

 

and Corney 

 

We've got an invitation out to the OEC, which they've accepted & we are waiting for a confirmed date from them. Afterwhich, we would very much like to speak to Mr. Blitz. 

 

Mr. Corney doesn't appear on our primary target list of interviewees as things stand, owing to his scope of influence now being irrelevant & in the relative distant past. We've got many more people we'd like to talk to first. Never say never though.

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23 hours ago, Frankly Mr Shankly said:

Wasn't much in there that we didn't already know TBH. The club do have a duty of care when it comes to mental health and bullying with employees. They've (unsurprisingly) fell well short on that with DW and presumably others. Have to say, it was telling that he couldn't bring himself to call Shitpeas as he'd asked him to and although Barry wasn't directly involved with the shenanigans that DW endured, he knew he was part of that regime that allowed it to happen. Fair play on DW for that.

 

I get the feeling the owners played hard with DW to force him away to accept a loan deal somewhere. He didn't and, well, lets just say it got very messy from that point onwards. 

 

I'm not a DW fan an by any stretch (he's a bit of a plodder and I'd much rather Peter Clarke than him). But I have every sympathy for the shite he had a put up with during his time with us. Good luck to him after his "come on get me" plea to Hartlepool.

Their were one or two titbits I hadn't heard before. He didn't want to be captain, or have the union reps. job. One of his duties as captain, was a telecast meeting with all other captains in L2. The subject of furlough came up, and every single captain of the other clubs confirmed that the players at their clubs were being topped up to 80% of their wages. OAFC was the only club in L2 not doing this.

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9 hours ago, BPAS said:

 

We've got an invitation out to the OEC, which they've accepted & we are waiting for a confirmed date from them. Afterwhich, we would very much like to speak to Mr. Blitz. 

 

Mr. Corney doesn't appear on our primary target list of interviewees as things stand, owing to his scope of influence now being irrelevant & in the relative distant past. We've got many more people we'd like to talk to first. Never say never though.


Cheers - I’m just bitter and want Simon to explain his “only selling to the right person” strategy and how he thinks it worked out and why after agreeing to stay on as chairman he had to be forcibly removed from the board when even AL realised he was a snake 

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45 minutes ago, al_bro said:

Their were one or two titbits I hadn't heard before. He didn't want to be captain, or have the union reps. job. One of his duties as captain, was a telecast meeting with all other captains in L2. The subject of furlough came up, and every single captain of the other clubs confirmed that the players at their clubs were being topped up to 80% of their wages. OAFC was the only club in L2 not doing this.

 

Exactly. We also thought his description of some of the characters quite revealing too..... like, who he tried to avoid, or whether he thought it worthwhile to call someone or not, or at what point things seemed to get worse.....

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A lot of the stuff there was commonly known but fantastic work from Matt to actually get it from the horses mouth. They're a nasty piece of work, aren't they? And I include directors who are no longer with the club in that too. Wheater is absolutely begging for a move to Hartlepool, isn't he? Found that a bit weird...

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1 hour ago, Lee Sinnott2 said:

A lot of the stuff there was commonly known but fantastic work from Matt to actually get it from the horses mouth. They're a nasty piece of work, aren't they? And I include directors who are no longer with the club in that too. Wheater is absolutely begging for a move to Hartlepool, isn't he? Found that a bit weird...

It doesn't look like he's going to be playing anywhere. He certainly won't be fit, and none of the cubs he would be interested in seem to have offered him a trial.

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1 hour ago, Lee Sinnott2 said:

A lot of the stuff there was commonly known but fantastic work from Matt to actually get it from the horses mouth. They're a nasty piece of work, aren't they? And I include directors who are no longer with the club in that too. Wheater is absolutely begging for a move to Hartlepool, isn't he? Found that a bit weird...

I wouldn’t say begging, he mentioned playing locally and Hartlepool have just come up- so we’ll see. 
 

What I did find odd is when he said, ‘people say- why don’t you just go loan, somewhere? But why should I? 
 

Eh? 
 

To play the game you keep saying you love, and get out of the shit show. Felt like digging in (I understand why) became more important than moving on- like woods did. He may regret that in years to come. 

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18 minutes ago, League one forever said:

I wouldn’t say begging, he mentioned playing locally and Hartlepool have just come up- so we’ll see. 
 

What I did find odd is when he said, ‘people say- why don’t you just go loan, somewhere? But why should I? 
 

Eh? 
 

To play the game you keep saying you love, and get out of the shit show. Felt like digging in (I understand why) became more important than moving on- like woods did. He may regret that in years to come. 

He probably will. He could have been fixed up somewhere by now if he had gone on loan. Saying that, they may have wanted him to go somewhere like Southend.

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1 minute ago, al_bro said:

He probably will. He could have been fixed up somewhere by now if he had gone on loan. Saying that, they may have wanted him to go somewhere like Southend.

In his situation - league position should of been irrelevant. Get out playing, get match fit, enjoy your football, help your mental health, put yourself in the shop window. 
 

He was obviously very bitter about his treatment, but ultimately bitterness only harms one person, and it ain’t AL or Mo. 

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8 minutes ago, League one forever said:

In his situation - league position should of been irrelevant. Get out playing, get match fit, enjoy your football, help your mental health, put yourself in the shop window. 
 

He was obviously very bitter about his treatment, but ultimately bitterness only harms one person, and it ain’t AL or Mo. 

He did seem to think though, that surely it wouldn't continue and they would allow him to play again. He was training hard and doing everything asked of him. Even moving into a mates house that was being renovated, to abide by new rules they made up regarding commuting.

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1 minute ago, al_bro said:

He did seem to think though, that surely it wouldn't continue and they would allow him to play again. He was training hard and doing everything asked of him. Even moving into a mates house that was being renovated, to abide by new rules they made up regarding commuting.

Did he?

 

He said he came back in the summer, and thought it would be ok, but it very quickly became apparent it wouldn’t be, when Dino said- you won’t play for the first team again.  Can’t get much clearer. Kewell comes in, and tells exactly the same. He then kept mentioning at several different points that he knew he wouldn’t play or even be allowed to train with the first team and was texting woods to say you’ll be next. Doesn’t sound like he kept hoping or thinking he would play. It was made blatantly obvious on numerous occasions that he wouldn’t play to the point of false fitness tests, and playing with 15 year olds. 
 

In short - the club were making his life a misery, now in that situation- you have two choices, you either say ‘right, we can all be t**ts then, I’m not going anywhere now, and you’ll pay me every penny’ Or you try not to take it personally,  realise you’re 150th person they’ve treated badly, and move on. 
 

He chose the former, and although it’s completely understandable why. He is the only loser in the long run. 

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I’m more worried about this vindictive trait the owners and senior club figures have, rather than whether Wheater should have left.
 

There’s a pattern here where they seem absolutely fine with damaging themselves/the club to score petty points. My concern is that the next to bear the brunt will be the fans. Will they be fine with letting the club go to the wall at their own personal cost just to spite the fans who are complaining? I reckon so. 

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10 minutes ago, nzlatic said:

I’m more worried about this vindictive trait the owners and senior club figures have, rather than whether Wheater should have left.
 

There’s a pattern here where they seem absolutely fine with damaging themselves/the club to score petty points. My concern is that the next to bear the brunt will be the fans. Will they be fine with letting the club go to the wall at their own personal cost just to spite the fans who are complaining? I reckon so. 

Yes and no, the spite against the fans is clearly already there. But like him or or not he keeps putting his money in, and paid blitz when he took him court. I think they revel in the animosity, and the power they believe they have. Can’t see them going anywhere. 

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45 minutes ago, League one forever said:

Yes and no, the spite against the fans is clearly already there. But like him or or not he keeps putting his money in, and paid blitz when he took him court. I think they revel in the animosity, and the power they believe they have. Can’t see them going anywhere. 

He doesn’t have unlimited resources though. I hope I’m wrong, but the way they do the same thing regularly - to players… and staff… is a bit of a worry if they decide to take it out on the fans. 

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