The Football

[Wheatabeat]

GTFC friendly at home to Oldham! Might have been a nice mini Anorak meet-up with our Latics contingent, were it not on the Saturday of Indietracks.

Ooh I didn't even know that was arranged! Terrible timing n'all. I'm rather fed up of football right at the moment, what with our fantastic manager deciding Div 4 Notts County under a transfer embargo was a better prospect than us, having 2 contracted players on the books (one of which a striker who hasn't scored in about 3 years) and understanding that our board have already spent next seasons season ticket money on bills and fuck knows what.

Sigh.

[humblebee]

Ooh I didn't even know that was arranged! Terrible timing n'all. I'm rather fed up of football right at the moment, what with our fantastic manager deciding Div 4 Notts County under a transfer embargo was a better prospect than us, having 2 contracted players on the books (one of which a striker who hasn't scored in about 3 years) and understanding that our board have already spent next seasons season ticket money on bills and fuck knows what.

Sigh.

Still, you stayed up again, eh? :)

Yeah, total basket case at the moment, Notts (which is a shame, cos I like them as a club). Glad our manager had the sense to say no when they came in for him.

[Wheatabeat]

Still, you stayed up again, eh? :)

Yeah, total basket case at the moment, Notts (which is a shame, cos I like them as a club). Glad our manager had the sense to say no when they came in for him.

I really ought to have a sense of pride after having a remarkable turnaround and putting a great run of form together to stay up. I just don't have much faith in our board to bring in a John Sheridan 2.0 to carry it on next season.

I think you'll do really well next season. We might not need a pre season friendly to have a meet up before too long anyway!

[This Is Helena]

WALES!

[Trev]

BLOODY HELL!

[humblebee]

This is so great!

Sent from my SM-A300FU using Tapatalk

[Wheatabeat]

This is so great!

I tell you what's not great. Being four weeks from the start of the season with no manager and only four contracted players, none of which are goalkeepers. If it wasn't for Wales I'd be completely fucked off with football altogether.

[humblebee]

Chuffing nora.

How has this happened?

[Wheatabeat]

Chuffing nora.

How has this happened?

Steady and measured asset stripping by the owners over the course of the last 6-7 years. Mix in a little playing of the fans against one another ("But they saved us in 2003!") and build a white elephant of a stand which has been marketed as something that will fund the running of the club but does in fact do hardly any funding. Said white elephant distributes matchday income (ie, fuck all) to the club but the juicy wedding, midweek functions and gym revenues are siphoned straight into the owners company, Brassbank.

The last few seasons have been painful. Terrible managerial appointments quickly followed by hasty quick-fixes which have just managed to keep us up each season. But eventually, be it this season or the next it will fail. And a new round of cloth-cutting begins anew. Rinse and repeat until the fans fuck off and they can use the land for housing or something I'd wager.

They repeatedly state the club is for sale "to the right owner" but who on earth is going to sink in £20m-£30m in a struggling third division football club with barely any assets? It'll be a long, long time before the feelgood factor returns I fear.

[humblebee]

Steady and measured asset stripping by the owners over the course of the last 6-7 years. Mix in a little playing of the fans against one another ("But they saved us in 2003!") and build a white elephant of a stand which has been marketed as something that will fund the running of the club but does in fact do hardly any funding. Said white elephant distributes matchday income (ie, fuck all) to the club but the juicy wedding, midweek functions and gym revenues are siphoned straight into the owners company, Brassbank.

The last few seasons have been painful. Terrible managerial appointments quickly followed by hasty quick-fixes which have just managed to keep us up each season. But eventually, be it this season or the next it will fail. And a new round of cloth-cutting begins anew. Rinse and repeat until the fans fuck off and they can use the land for housing or something I'd wager.

They repeatedly state the club is for sale "to the right owner" but who on earth is going to sink in £20m-£30m in a struggling third division football club with barely any assets? It'll be a long, long time before the feelgood factor returns I fear.

Well, Steve Robinson seems a good managerial appointment. He doesn't look exactly thrilled to be there, mind.

[Wheatabeat]

Well, Steve Robinson seems a good managerial appointment. He doesn't look exactly thrilled to be there, mind.

FireShot Screen Capture #192 - 'BREAKING_ Steve Robinson Appointed New Oldham Athletic Manager' - www_oldhamathletic_co_uk_news_article_2016-17_breaki.png

Yes, I'm mildly more enthusiastic seeing the calibre of signings that are incoming (most are on one-year contracts though). Going to take some serious gelling time I guess.

God, an independent bunch of misguided, young - I'm trying, yet failing to find the right descriptive here - dickheads have formed this crude, reactionary protest group now. I really get where they are coming from, there seems to be a lot of smoke and mirrors about with regards to what income streams benefit the club and what don't. Plus key unanswered questions such as is the club saddled with a huge debt in the shape of this new stand with little hope of paying it back? But they've gone totally Islamic Ray Guns on it with this new leaflet they were handing out at a recent home friendly. Pete, I'd not read it if infant-level grammar and crushingly bad punctuation is going to cause you an aneurysm.

[humblebee]

Reports of the death of local journalism may be greatly exaggerated: check out this blistering attack on the "disfigured" Football League Trophy in Carlisle's News & Star.

[Michael Quentin]

That's a really strong piece. The pictures of the boycotts were heartening also.

[humblebee]

That's a really strong piece. The pictures of the boycotts were heartening also.

Yeah. Strong action. Town are taking 2,000 to Notts County this Saturday; only 60 went to Walsall on Tuesday. Overall crowds were down 23% on the same phase last year - a record low. I only hope our lot don't cave in when Leicester send their B team up to Cleethorpes, whenever that is.

[humblebee]

Loving the Town fans' new Omar Bogle song.

[sweepingthenation]

ITV's 1974 World Cup preview show has turned up, and it's a thing of timelocked beauty.

[humblebee]

If anyone wants a read, I had one of my less uninspired days on Cod Almighty's diary today.
http://codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?article=6028

[noLooking]

[humblebee]

[Wheatabeat]

Oh it's shocking isn't it that. Rather indefensible really. But I can't help laughing my head off at the ''My kids are getting no Christmas presents now because of you'' line.