philliggi

ive always thought of tranmere as the closest to us, but warsaw is a very good shout.

highlights dont do it justice. a fine display all round

anything non league away, or anythin winnable at home. please not any league team away,

put simply the club should offer bonus' like the real world. give a basic bonus for every member of the squad once the team has earned a basic number of points (say 50) and for each subsequent point another cash bonus is awarded. however this bonus should only be awarded once each player has played enough games. i dont claim to know realistic figgures for wages and bonus's so take these with a pinch of salt, its the principle i intend to demonstrate. players basic wage £1000 basic bonus £1000 subsequent bonus for each point gained over 50 points £100 so for finishing on 80 points, or in an around 6th spot a player would earn a bonus of around £4000. its quite easy to manipulate if these figures are unrealistic, just alter the £100 in the model. if 22 players were to reach the minimum target of games, it would cost the club £88,000, i would be interested to find out what the club is currently spending on bonus's. this model could also be altered by just using half the bonus budget this way. the other half could be awarded by a panel manually giving bonus's at the end of the year. ie, dickov, taggert, corney etc get together and say player x has contributed significantly more than player y, we will give him more.

looked very raw when he was with us, but i remember the first tim i ever saw him (stockport away i think) i said to my dad he was something special. he still had a lot of work to do in front of goal but he ran rings around multiple defences, was just lacking the end product, be it a killer pass or goal. was strong for someone so young and if it every came to him being released by bolton id have him back in a shot

is it coincidence we just happen to be good defensively and shocking going forward tho? i dont think so. for me we leaked to many goals last year and to counteract this dickov is using our 2 central midfielders defensively hoping our attacking options out wide will see us thru. furman and weslowski are the main difference defensively between this season and last, but as a knock on effect we have no penitration going forward from midfield.

I am not talking about conspiracy theories or anything like that. i am simply saying the fact that they are in it to make money, and have failed miserably is severely affecting the club as it stands, and if things dont change we will only get worse. I dont understand how people are constantly moaning about the product on the pitch, yet are not willing to look at all the reasons why things are as they are?

So lets just say - for example purposes - an advert is taken in the financial times, as was the case with the moore takeover, or whatever. ok it might cost a couple of thousand. It doesnt sell. What have they lost? (except the couple of thousand obviously) They would still own the club, and we would still be in exactly the same position we are now. but there is always that chance we do find the investor we so desperately need. or we could just sit on our hands and hope a magic fairy pops out of a teapot

This is exactly why I want action. To avoid this happening. because if we do go, we are gone for good and wont be coming back any time soon. Action is a must

Is this the bidder who is best for the club, or is it the bidder willing to stump up enough money? In my mind I see it that Corney et al want x amount of money for the club, and x is a figure which exceeds its true value and that what potential buyers are willing to pay. They will never recoup the losses they have made, and would almost certainly sell at a loss if selling now. what i believe to be true, although they would never admit it, is its a case of them not wanting to sell at a loss, rather than having the best interests of the club at heart. I hope to god I am wrong because if I aint, we are only going one way.

It is quite clear that there is a mixed bag of fans here, for and against corneys leadership. personally i am neither for or against at present, regardless how you interpret my original post. what i am trying to highlight is the fact the club cannot continue fighting fires as it has done. action needs taking to stop the rot (to coin an old phrase) Personally, as previously stated, i would like to see significant investment in the club from corney and his mates, OR a big for sale sign put on the front of the main stand. One or the other, we can no longer afford to maintain the status quo as I truly believe this will result in relegation this season or next. However, I do appreciate there are those that will disagree with me. So I ask you this. If we are to stay under corneys courtship in the coming years, how do you see the club become sustainable, and successful on the pitch, with the current playing budget. I do not accept everything will be ok once the new stand is complete, because I fear relegation before its completion.

you have to ask some questions here: how much is the club worth how much would corney be willing to sell for how much would someone be willing t buy for. i suspect the third question is answered by a sum a whole lot smaller than the second, hence why there has been no buyers. in respect of is he actively selling, i would say no.. by active i dont just mean willing to listen to offers, i mean advertising it, like the club did when corney and co were brought in

Ive had this feeling for a while now. Personally I believe the life is draining from the football club, not intentionally on anyones part, but as a result of certain agenda's from Corney himself. When the 3 Amigo's too charge at Boundary Park, we were averaging 6,926 through the gate that year, a figure which, in 10 years has dropped to 4,432, a reduction of 2494, or 28%. This figure will be dramatically down again this year with the loss of key local derbies. compare this to a small increase in the overall league one figures over the same period and its worrying. So what is the reason for these figures? there are many. Decline of Boundary Park and successive failures in stadium development Successive managers failing to deliver lack of investment in club, both playing and commercial more attractive options elsewhere i.e city/utd/sky sports Rise in cost of matchday People also offer personal reasons, such as family, work or social commitments, but i wish to focus on points the club can directly impact. this is because i believe if the club made itself an attractive proposition, many of these personal reasons would be overcome. so of the list above, I believe every single one can be directly linked to the management of the club. by this I mean at board level, and not the team management.At each and every opportunity where we have had the chance to turn a corner, and take a step towards being successful, we have either made a poor decision, or actively tried to do the job for as cheap as possible. When it comes to the decline of boundary park, I fully agree with the club it is folly to spend ££££'s maintaining a dying arena. This is why the club should have gone into the first development (Oldham Arena) with its eyes wide open. We were already more than aware that residents had problems with the development of the site, yet we attempt to build a major housing development on the site. Having spoken to people in the aftermath of planning permission being refused, it was quite clear from the off we would never get permission for the initial development. If the homework had been done thoroughly initially, the plan would have been drawn in a more realistic fashion, which was nigh on guarenteed persission. The initial idea was lets get as many dwellings into one plot of land as possible. thats fine, but once it comes to light residents and councillors alike had concerns, they should have worked along side them in the planning stages, before going infront of the council committee (I know this will not be a popular topic, but regardless what you think of the residents, they had their concerns from the outset, and these were ignored right up until the stage the plans went before planning). As a result of the plan failing, we have gone from a whole housing development, hotel and arena, to a small stand and car park. if thorough due diligence was used initially we would have had downgraded plans far in excess of what is currently on offer. this stinks of greed to me, put bluntly. In respect of successive management failures, there has been a mixed bag. Talbot and Penney were met with luke warm receptions from the word go, they were bad appointment from the board and were never likely to succeed. lower league managers, who have done very little in league football. It is these 2 appointments that killed off the bulk of the 6926 average crowd we enjoyed a decade ago. Ronnie Moore was unique in the fact that he was wanted at the time and was given a large budget to work with, and ulimately failed. I cannot knock the board with this one. Sheridan and Dickov. for the most part I agree with these appointments, young hungry managers who want to make their way in the game. Again i agree with their appointments. what i dont agree with however is the budgets they are being given to work with. for the past 5 or 6 years, we have consistently seen the budget cut year on year. to an extent certain blame must be placed on them for not making correct tacical decisions etc, but if you cut the budget repeatedly you are only going to go one way. and thats backwards. Ok, so we havent got the money to give the management a decent playing budget, thats fine. but if thats the case I would urge Corney to actively put the club up for sale. We continually hear we are open to offers, and the like, but realistically how likely is it we will get investors knocking on the front door without an invite? It is quite clear Corney does not have the funds to take this club forward. My own personal view on the matter is this. When the 3 Amigos took ownership of the club they saw us as an average league 1 club with great potential to develop the surrounding land. we were in the middle of an economic boom and there were vast sums of money to be made developing the carpark. the planning permisson got refused and 2 Amigos decided with the economic climate, any potential in the club had been lost, and decided to cut their losses. Corney however doesnt want to cut his losses, and still wants to at least break even on investment, pushing ahead with the lancaster club and the latest plans. all the while putting as little as possible into the football side of the club. Once the stand is built he will look to sell the club on as a more attractive outfit, and take his money out. I understand he is a business man and must conduct his business as he sees best, but if that is to the detriment of the club quite frankly I have seen enough. I would ask Mr Corney to either invest significantly in the playing budget (i want to see us secure in this league, im not talking millions to push us up the leagues) or actively seek a replacement who can at least give us a stable platform to work from. The way we are currently operating is one on a downward spiral. if we see the same decline over the next ten years as we have seen in the last ten, we could quite feasably be playing non league football, or worse. Time for a change, with or without corney

was carl serrant around while we were in league 1, or did he go while still in the championship?

its the most appearances in any one season prozac, not just players who played for us. hence why no miskelly, and im guessing that when kelly joined in 1996 he made more appearances that year than hallworth but i cant be arsed looking up the stats to confirm that

i dont know, i didnt make the rules, just came across it

im guessing prozac will win this one. surprisingly difficult once you get past the obvious wont go into an explination, its all on there. i got 101/176, although im sure ill be beaten comfortably http://www.sporcle.com/games/Freddie/football-league-xis-oldham-athletic

1 being, dont go, dont look out for results, basically not a fan 10 being you go every game, home and away, buy the programmes, shirts, arrange your social life around latics 5 or six years ago i was most certainly a 10. it was a given we went to every game up and down the country, spending thousands in the process. now i would say im no more than a 7. attend very few away games, and havent got a season ticket this year due to personal reasons. first time in 20 years. obviously most of those who dont go anymore even if they have the option will be 2 and 3, but its more interesting to see just how many of those that do go go out of duty rather than actually enjoying the experience.

im in the fail camp im afraid. usually if a player fails here but succeeds elswhere we see something about him that says he may have something. but with him the most useful weaponhe has is his name.

talking about pies they are appauling this year. took pies back at both the walsall game and the stevenage game due to them being blacker than coal. exchanged them for a hot dog. your not allowed to take weapons into a football ground by law, but who needs too when they are selling these potential leathal missiles

in, purely because we have noone better, the key players signed because of dickov, and a new guy would be stuck with dickovs squad. can you imagine a manager who plays big boot football with this squad. we would be down by october

You should consider something like ive done if you would like to raise more money for the cause. im taking part in a half marathon in oct and am running a sweepstake on my time. ive copied and pasted the instructions below. it could be workable for you as well the benefit of this is people actually feel like they are getting something back and it isnt just another cause.

needs 2 players to be playing him on. remember there is usually the keeper as well, but he is clearly 3 or four yards up the pitch

http://p.twimg.com/A0mVE13CEAEO2yQ.jpg:large offside? not offside? obviously the ball hits lewington and bounces into the path of simpson, but is simpson in an offside position when the ball is played? for me its much closer on that pic than what it seemed in real time, but i still think the goal should have stood.

ideally tarky should be out on loan this season, or til jan at least, but we havent got the funds to get another 2 centre backs in. he is above reserves. its a difficult one.