Where will we finish this season?

[Lags]

3 hours ago, yarddog73 said:

I think we are overpriced but still struggling with us turning in to some winning machine, as for Chesterfield they must be favourites and have recruited well to an already solid squad, given the budgets we really should be slogging it out at the top end this season and I'm optimistic but still see weakness in the way we set up and approach games, we've played nobody of any note in pre season yet, been out played by all three teams for large parts of the game and still look vulnerable, still can't have us out of the top 7 regardless of whose in charge.

 

You don't like DU....we know.  Let's be honest,  most managers/coaches fail and get sacked.  You've more chance to be right than wrong. 

[Steve_R]

5 hours ago, Dave_Og said:

I can't really say I've followed Chesterfield's pre-season activity much.  I know they've signed Grigg and another L1 player whose name escapes me.  Who else?  Given we outscored them in points for the second half of last season I can't really fathom why they are such strong favourites - I'm very happy with the 11/1 and 9/1 (the latter still readily available) at which I've been accumulating bets on us since the bookies opened up.

I’m no expert in how bookies work out their odds, but any team that finishes third, loses the playoff final on penalties and keeps hold of all it’s best players, is more than likely to start the next season as favourites 

[Dave_Og]

29 minutes ago, Steve_R said:

I’m no expert in how bookies work out their odds, but any team that finishes third, loses the playoff final on penalties and keeps hold of all it’s best players, is more than likely to start the next season as favourites 

I remember I got 14/1 about us winning the league in 90/91. 

[League one forever]

6 hours ago, HarryBosch said:

If Unsworth is here all season I think we'll make the playoffs but not get over the line.

And he'll get another year and we'll see a similar outcome the following season.

 

If he goes, who knows?

New man might quickly get a tune out of the squad and/or quickly bring in the right players (especially in midfield if this is what we go into the season with).

Or he might need time after showing us a bit of something to deserve it. 

 

Either way I don't see us getting promoted until 24/25 season at the earliest, maybe not even then.

And the longer we're here the harder it might get. 

 

I'll be ecstatic & relieved to be proven completely wrong. 

I tend to agree, and voted the same. 
 

I think we’ll improve and finish in the playoffs, but ultimately miss out. 

[rudemedic]

7 hours ago, Dave_Og said:

I can't really say I've followed Chesterfield's pre-season activity much.  I know they've signed Grigg and another L1 player whose name escapes me.  Who else?  Given we outscored them in points for the second half of last season I can't really fathom why they are such strong favourites - I'm very happy with the 11/1 and 9/1 (the latter still readily available) at which I've been accumulating bets on us since the bookies opened up.

I think the bookies massively underestimated our chances when the betting opened (FWIW I got 12s from sky bet). The odds currently are a bit more accurate and I think we are realistic second favourites. Especially as we were the best team left in the division in the first part of 2023 and have improved. But Chesterfield are the best team left in the division from 22-23 and have also improved.

 

I don't think the top 2 will race away with it this season as they did last season. Notts County would have won every other top 5 division in any other year with their points tally.

 

I think our squad will prove influential this season, aside from Chesterfield I think we will have the best squad in the division, but I think all the remaining playoff teams plus us and Hartlepool will make up the top 7 this season. Where we come is a bit less predictable.

 

[oafcmetty]

Squad looks ok, but I have zero confidence in the manager, so 8th-12th for me.

[Handsy]

Top 3

[TheBigDog]

1 hour ago, oafcmetty said:

Squad looks ok, but I have zero confidence in the manager, so 8th-12th for me.

Is that the same manager who assembled the ok squad?

[disjointed]

1 minute ago, TheBigDog said:

Is that the same manager who assembled the ok squad?

It's what he does with the squad he has assembled though, the jury is out for me. 

[Steve_R]

2 minutes ago, TheBigDog said:

Is that the same manager who assembled the ok squad?

I thought the recruitment committee assembled the squad, or that’s what the podcast lads say

[TheBigDog]

28 minutes ago, Steve_R said:

I thought the recruitment committee assembled the squad, or that’s what the podcast lads say

Manager has final say

[oafc1955]

1 minute ago, TheBigDog said:

Manager has final say

That’ll please the Unsworth outers and confirms he’ll take the blame if the shit hits the fan!!

[TheBigDog]

16 minutes ago, oafc1955 said:

That’ll please the Unsworth outers and confirms he’ll take the blame if the shit hits the fan!!

Their numbers are dwindling now - the few who remain are careful to add the phrase “I hope I’m wrong” at the end of their posts…

[redlion]

30 minutes ago, TheBigDog said:

Their numbers are dwindling now - the few who remain are careful to add the phrase “I hope I’m wrong” at the end of their posts…

I'm still a "Unsworth Outer" simply because I think there are better managers out there who can do a much better job while providing better entertainment. That's not to say he can't get us promoted, he might, but I'd rather win promotion under a Joe Royle style team rather than a Colin Wanker type team. Of course, I hope i'm wrong. 

Edited July 25, 2023 by redlion

[disjointed]

28 minutes ago, TheBigDog said:

Their numbers are dwindling now - the few who remain are careful to add the phrase “I hope I’m wrong” at the end of their posts…

And why wouldn't we, it's OK to have reservations about Unsworth and still want the club to be successful. 

[TheBigDog]

8 minutes ago, disjointed said:

And why wouldn't we, it's OK to have reservations about Unsworth and still want the club to be successful. 

Because it doesn’t need to be said 

[longtimeblue]

51 minutes ago, TheBigDog said:

Their numbers are dwindling now - the few who remain are careful to add the phrase “I hope I’m wrong” at the end of their posts…

 

What's wrong with that? Who doesn't want to go up. 

[disjointed]

23 minutes ago, TheBigDog said:

Because it doesn’t need to be said 

[Littlemoor Lad]

1 hour ago, oafc1955 said:

That’ll please the Unsworth outers and confirms he’ll take the blame if the shit hits the fan!!

He had a free hit last season but it became clear, after all his fuck ups, there was a system and we finished where most had predicted,

This time out, he's had incredible backing on the player budget, a full pre season and free reign on all fronts.

If he doesn't get it right this time, we all know that he wasn't the right man to take us forward but I hope I'm wrong 

[GlossopLatic]

19 hours ago, TheBigDog said:

Their numbers are dwindling now - the few who remain are careful to add the phrase “I hope I’m wrong” at the end of their posts…

 

Yes I've noticed this. I wonder how willing some will want to admit to that they are wrong. Or will the goal posts move. "We should be top of the league anyway" "We should beat these leisure centres with bus stops as away ends"

 

Having said that once the season gets underway and as expected wins do tot up, and people look at the league table on Saturday evening and see us near the top, then I can see the excitement building. It will be important though to not just win some of those games but win them well. Get a few really good performances in especially at home where the majority can see with their own eyes and it will inspire the fans

 

I have wondered if we aren't being as enthusiastic as we should be this season this is the first time in a long time where we can genuinely expect, not hope or pray for promotion push, but expect. We've done alot of the right things. You can hear from the interview that Unsworth has done that the training set up was nowhere near what it needed to be when he got here and we've had a big turnaround in that time. Unsworth himself seems alot more relaxed and confident than he did after those very difficult first 2 months he's probably a better manager than he was then. While some want to judge him purely on that and don't want to change their minds the majority are of us are more rational.

 

If you go back to July 2006 their wasn't that much expectation that we could kick on and get and get a promotion challenge but as the season started and results picked up particularly from September through to Feb and the mood and atmosphere changed. The problem that year is that we lacked squad depth so we couldn't maintain that good form, this year we have depth in the squad so we are geared to maintaining good form throughout the whole season. Some might be sceptical now but I think alot will jump on board if they start seeing W's in the form column. It's going to be an exciting season.

Edited July 26, 2023 by GlossopLatic

[Littlemoor Lad]

We all want the same thing at the end of the day and everything's on the table for debate

Even Big Dave's position as manager

[GlossopLatic]

34 minutes ago, Littlemoor Lad said:

He had a free hit last season but it became clear, after all his fuck ups, there was a system and we finished where most had predicted,

This time out, he's had incredible backing on the player budget, a full pre season and free reign on all fronts.

If he doesn't get it right this time, we all know that he wasn't the right man to take us forward but I hope I'm wrong 

 

He's had incredible backing compared to other Oldham managers.

 

Which is the key here, the vast majority of managers in the last 30 years have not been properly backed. Their is a reason why we are the least successful team in England's top 5 divisions in the last 30 years Most clubs have at some point in that time backed their managers as good if not considerably better than he has been backed this last 8 months, those managers will also still be at the beginning of their respective reigns 8 months into the job.

 

The 10 managers in the 4 years of the previous regime didn't stand a chance they may have known what they were getting into in some respects but they were never set up to succeed. A big problem we've had for a long time is that we don't know what good looks like good grief I think weve forgotten what normal looks like nevermind good or excellent. I think only now we are starting to realise that.

Edited July 25, 2023 by GlossopLatic

[peanuts2]

back to the original question finish above chesterfield we will have had a good season 

[Littlemoor Lad]

I get that, the debate here is Dave's ability to see the job through and I hope to God he takes us back to the promised land, preferably this season

We have top owner's, the fan's are fully onboard and as far as I'm concerned everything is up for debate until it's done.

We don't belong in non league and that needs to change.

[simplythemostimportantkick]

On 7/24/2023 at 5:00 PM, yarddog73 said:

I think we are overpriced but still struggling with us turning in to some winning machine, as for Chesterfield they must be favourites and have recruited well to an already solid squad, given the budgets we really should be slogging it out at the top end this season and I'm optimistic but still see weakness in the way we set up and approach games, we've played nobody of any note in pre season yet, been out played by all three teams for large parts of the game and still look vulnerable, still can't have us out of the top 7 regardless of whose in charge.

Any of the wierdos that frequent other teams forums know if they see us as their title challenging rivals ? Do fans of any other teams see us as a threat ?