Dave_Og Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 2 hours ago, Worcester Owl said: Both you and @Dave_Ogmake good points. To the latter, my point in bringing up the FCA analogy was because I (like you ? - apologies if I’m wrong) have spent many years in the financial services industry. The FCA and its predecessor FSA, and in particular IMRO, had their faults but they did make it clear that anyone in that industry could expect severe repercussions for rule breaches, going against conduct of business rules etc. As a qualified accountant I had an innate sense of right and wrong anyway, but that “moral compass” was certainly underlined by the compliance regime we operated in. In contrast, it feels to me that at Oldham and many other clubs at board and ownership level those basic principles of a professional attitude, knowing right from wrong, sustainable stewardship and treating fans fairly are so often lacking if not altogether absent. If we cannot hold the EFL and ultimately the FA to account for this, who do we target? I actually worked at IMRO! When I went back to the real world I was more than a little embarrassed!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basilrobbie Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 12 hours ago, Worcester Owl said: Both you and @Dave_Ogmake good points. To the latter, my point in bringing up the FCA analogy was because I (like you ? - apologies if I’m wrong) have spent many years in the financial services industry. The FCA and its predecessor FSA, and in particular IMRO, had their faults but they did make it clear that anyone in that industry could expect severe repercussions for rule breaches, going against conduct of business rules etc. As a qualified accountant I had an innate sense of right and wrong anyway, but that “moral compass” was certainly underlined by the compliance regime we operated in. In contrast, it feels to me that at Oldham and many other clubs at board and ownership level those basic principles of a professional attitude, knowing right from wrong, sustainable stewardship and treating fans fairly are so often lacking if not altogether absent. If we cannot hold the EFL and ultimately the FA to account for this, who do we target? Hi Worcester. I'm NOT a financial services expert, as it happens. My expertise is in managing failing local authorities - I was co-designer of the "best value" regime that was introduced in 1999 and have managed Government interventions in places like Hackney, Hull, Plymouth, Northampton, NE Lincs and quite a lot more. So I know a bit about designing regulatory frameworks and managing large monolithic, failing institutions - albeit the ones I'm familiar with had both political and managerial aspects to their "failure". And obviously, football clubs are not wholly like councils in the way they operate. The main problem on regulation is twofold : a) the framework we have is fatally flawed - merely a prescriptive and inflexible list of provisions where nobody seems to have asked themselves "what do we want to achieve?" BEFORE designing it. It certainly puts a very low degree of importance on the interests and wishes of club supporters. Dave_Og is quite right when he says that the EFL are hidebound by it - in a perfect world you would never start attacking the problem from where we currently are b) the culture of the EFL in particular is self-serving and wholly inadequate for the job, regardless of what tools they are given. That dates back over a long period, was at its worst (in my view) under Harvey but has not really improved all that much under Parry. They know that they are in danger of losing the regulatory responsibilities they have (and may even be secretly relieved) and in my opinion are currently trying to go out in a blaze of self-justifying glory (by throwing their weight around with Derby, for instance, in a pretty cack-handed manner**). And I know that is a highly uncharitable view, but along with my colleagues on the Blackpool ST I spent nearly three years trying to persuade them to do the right thing, even tried to design management tools they could use, and got very little in the way of a response. ** Derby are not really in a position to complain, mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worcester Owl Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 11 hours ago, Dave_Og said: I actually worked at IMRO! When I went back to the real world I was more than a little embarrassed!! Ha, I was the other side of the fence as a fund manager! We did moan about IMRO I admit, but I’m old enough to just about remember the industry before they came along, and there’s no doubt the financial services sector would have been worse without regulators. My outfit was owned by a life assurance company and I’d better not start a rant about their commission-based sales guys! in fact I’m getting way off topic now so I’ll stop waffling! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave_Og Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 45 minutes ago, Worcester Owl said: Ha, I was the other side of the fence as a fund manager! We did moan about IMRO I admit, but I’m old enough to just about remember the industry before they came along, and there’s no doubt the financial services sector would have been worse without regulators. My outfit was owned by a life assurance company and I’d better not start a rant about their commission-based sales guys! in fact I’m getting way off topic now so I’ll stop waffling! Quite - many tales to tell but better over beer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al_bro Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 20 hours ago, JoeP said: The EFL should have deemed him unfit to run a club as soon as they heard he was a football agent, in my opinion... At the time, most of us wanted them to get on with it and allow him to take over because we knew Corney was unable to carry on robbing Peter to pay Paul. AL seemed a lifesaver at the time. Unfortunately we were sadly very wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeP Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 8 minutes ago, al_bro said: At the time, most of us wanted them to get on with it and allow him to take over because we knew Corney was unable to carry on robbing Peter to pay Paul. AL seemed a lifesaver at the time. Unfortunately we were sadly very wrong. Did anyone really see AL as "a lifesaver"?? I, for one, was highly sceptical from the off about a football agent from Morocco with no connection to Oldham taking over the club when no one else seemed to want it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaddyexile84 Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 15 minutes ago, JoeP said: Did anyone really see AL as "a lifesaver"?? I, for one, was highly sceptical from the off about a football agent from Morocco with no connection to Oldham taking over the club when no one else seemed to want it... Corney could only keep blagging it for so long (I spoke to the guy who did the revamp of the dressing room who hadn’t been paid for it when Corney was telling people he’d spent £20,000 on it) and I think that’s why some were cautiously optimistic of the take over and willing to give AL the benefit of the doubt the only “good” thing from AL (and I use the term looser than my trousers if Jennifer Lawrence offered my ten minutes with her) was he halted and then slowed our insolvency Corney had played all his cards and jokers with the final one being to get AL to buy the club We were finished with him we are now of course Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightDN123 Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 Have we seen this plan yet ? Thought it was end of October ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaddyexile84 Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 Just now, LightDN123 said: Have we seen this plan yet ? Thought it was end of October ? He never said which October Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightDN123 Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 17 minutes ago, Chaddyexile84 said: He never said which October Hes a stupid prick isn’t he. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudemedic Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 59 minutes ago, JoeP said: Did anyone really see AL as "a lifesaver"?? I, for one, was highly sceptical from the off about a football agent from Morocco with no connection to Oldham taking over the club when no one else seemed to want it... Not when he first took over I certainly didn’t. A few months later when it became really apparent on how much shit we were in under Corney then I might have done. But by that time we had been relegated, which AL had to take some responsibility for, especially with the issues around him going into the dressing room, and he had already lost his opportunity to be seen as our lifesaver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
League one forever Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 The smile told you everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worcester Owl Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 3 hours ago, al_bro said: At the time, most of us wanted them to get on with it and allow him to take over because we knew Corney was unable to carry on robbing Peter to pay Paul. AL seemed a lifesaver at the time. Unfortunately we were sadly very wrong. I’ll admit that I believed - or more likely wanted to believe - Corney when he repeatedly used to say that he would only ever sell the club to the “right” guy. I was almost as stupid as AL in thinking that Corney was being sincere, the creep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeP Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 26 minutes ago, Worcester Owl said: I’ll admit that I believed - or more likely wanted to believe - Corney when he repeatedly used to say that he would only ever sell the club to the “right” guy. He said that a fair while before he actually sold the club. I doubt the "right" person existed and throw in the years of abuse he got from the fans, you could sort of see why he went back on that.... plus he'd be mad to turn down £2.5 million for a badge and a load of lower league footballers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
latics22 Posted November 3, 2021 Share Posted November 3, 2021 2 hours ago, League one forever said: The smile told you everything. Yep creepy as fuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlossopLatic Posted November 4, 2021 Share Posted November 4, 2021 8 hours ago, JoeP said: He said that a fair while before he actually sold the club. I doubt the "right" person existed and throw in the years of abuse he got from the fans, you could sort of see why he went back on that.... plus he'd be mad to turn down £2.5 million for a badge and a load of lower league footballers. Don't think he got £2.5million I think he got nothing just AL inherited slot of the debt. The problem with Corney was that he consistently delivered false dawns. Take the stadium. The original plan was to redevelop Boundary Park, which turned into a smaller stadium at Failsworth, which turned into 1 new stand at Boundary Park, which turned into 1 new stand at Boundary Park which we didn't own and still has the top floor and retail space left dormant. Sadly that's the perfect legacy for Corney, Blitz and Gazal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeP Posted November 4, 2021 Share Posted November 4, 2021 52 minutes ago, GlossopLatic said: Don't think he got £2.5million I think he got nothing just AL inherited slot of the debt. The problem with Corney was that he consistently delivered false dawns. Take the stadium. The original plan was to redevelop Boundary Park, which turned into a smaller stadium at Failsworth, which turned into 1 new stand at Boundary Park, which turned into 1 new stand at Boundary Park which we didn't own and still has the top floor and retail space left dormant. Sadly that's the perfect legacy for Corney, Blitz and Gazal. Oh for a few false dawns now... The redevelopment of the ground, the move to Failsworth and the new stand all hit road blocks for reasons that were beyond Corney's control (mainly to do with the council). The North Stand is exactly what the club needed and it's an embarrassment to AL and Blitz that the club aren't utilising it as they should. At least Corney tried (for the most part) to improve the club and while things on the pitch didn't improve, they didn't get much worse either. You don't hang around for 15 years generally if things are really going that badly for the whole time. AL, on the otherhand, came in and wrecked what little the club had going for it over a very short space of time and now doesn't seem to give a shit. Can you imagine him even coming up with plans to improve the ground, failing, then trying to move the club, then failing again, then planning a new stand and then building it? He can't even be arsed cobbling together a 3 year plan to even pretend he's still interested! I was firmly in the "be careful what you wish for" camp when AL first came on the scene, while others just wanted Corney out at all costs. We're now in a place where there's nothing left of the club to salvage. Now's the time to say "anyone but this owner" because no one can do it any worse, whoever they may be. We're heading for non-league and insolvency under this owner fast, while when AL first came in there was a foundation to work with which he's now completely destroyed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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