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[FM11] Somewhere Over the Rainbow... The Pot of Gold or Mediocrity Awaits?


433tom

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Ouch! That was a bit of a shocker!

Yea it was. Against Brighton for example, we went down 2-0 in the first 15 on a PK and own goal. Fought back to pull even, then conceded a late winner off a corner. It was one of those months. :)

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2010/2011 End of Season Update: Oldham Athletic - npower league 1

Overall it was a pretty good season as we exceeded expectations by finsihing 7th in the League. Squad harmony is good and my job is currently very secure.

On the financial side, we lost 113k for the season. Our average attendance was 5613 which ranked 13th in League 1.

Striker Reuben Reid finished 3rd in the League scoring table with 19 goals. Reid continued to garner individual honors as he was voted Oldham Player of the Year by the supporters and named to the League 1 Players Team of the Year.

Midfielder Dale Stephens finished co-leader in League assists with 16.

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Oldham Athletic 2010/2011 Best Eleven

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Youth Update

The youth team won their league handily led by Right Winger Gail Nlundulu, Striker Mohamed Bourhani, and Right Back Carl Winchester.

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Think you can win it next season?

Have to wait and see. I'm just starting the preseason and the board gave me no transfer budget and a smaller wage budget than last year, so things are tight. They cut the wage budget by 2k/week which just about adds up to 113k we were in the red last season. :)

But my staff has found a boatload of good 16 and 17 year olds. I expect the youth team to be even stronger than last season. So I may just have to build for the future.

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2010/2011 Off Season Update: Oldham Athletic

After reviewing the squad my primary concern going into the new season will be my central defenders. Andy Todd is 36 and missed much of last season due to injury and with Marcello Castellini now 38 years old, I don't think I can rely on either of them for another season. Todd is out of contract on July 1 and has already signed a pre-contact with Exeter, I plan on trying to off-load Castellini on a free as soon as the transfer window opens. That will leave us with Ruben Hazell as our only experienced center back, so I'll be scrambling to bring in at least 2 central defenders early in the pre-season. I would also like to upgrade the Keeper position if possible. Dean Brill is a good back-up but not really the quality I want as first choice. We should be ok at LM and Striker as we already signed Graham Carey from Celtic and Mark Stewart from Falkirk to pre-contracts.

However, our financial situation might affect my plans. We lost 133k last season and it's only going to get worse on July 1 when we start making payments of 41k/month on a 4.6m Chairman loan. Thats another 490k a year. The Board cut the wage budget from 34.9k/wk to 32k/wk for the coming season. This means I'm going to have to free up some wages to fill the holes in the squad. With that in mind, besides Castellini, I'm going to list right mid Chris Taylor who's currently on 3k/wk. Filipe Morais had already displaced him as first choice RM in the second half of the season. Hopefully, 19 year old Gael Nlundulu can step in as back-up RM after being promoted from the youth team where he had 11 goals and 11 assists last season from the RM position.

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That loan will really start to bite when the payments commence. Perhaps you could rent a couple of zimmer-frames from Oldham's Mobility Centre for your elderly centre-backs?! This'll be cheaper than forking out for a new player. :D

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That loan will really start to bite when the payments commence. Perhaps you could rent a couple of zimmer-frames from Oldham's Mobility Centre for your elderly centre-backs?! This'll be cheaper than forking out for a new player. :D

There were a few times last season where they moved out on the pitch like they were using walkers. :)

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thats unlucky on the playoffs dude, hopefully you can kick on that little bit extra this year and make a push again for a play-off spot.

also as a mackem is Oumare Tounkara actually good enough

Well he was already on a season long loan when I took over. But he did well enough. 38 app. 11 goals, 10 assists, 7.00 avg rating. If you look a few posts above you will see he made our season Best Eleven.

And at Oldham it's hard to bring in the better players that are available for loan because we can't afford the loan fees. I pretty much have to look for loan players that carry no loan fees.

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2011/2012 Pre-Season Update: Oldham Athletic - npower league 1

As discussed in my off-season update, several players were released or sold to free up wages, and we signed 3 central defenders and upgraded the Keeper position. Of course things went awry when Midfielder Dean Furman demanded a new contract far beyond our means. When we couldn't agree terms he demanded to be listed and was subsequently sold to Motherwell. Roma then came in with a bid we couldn't refuse for RM Gail Nlundulu. This leaves us scrambling to bring in at least 2 more midfielders before the window closes. To make our midfield woes a bit worse, LM Ebou Sillah tore a calf muscle in late July and is expected to be out for four months.

On the pitch things were a mixed bag as we worked hard on Team Blend.

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Transfers In

Graham Carey - 22 year old LM - Free, signed on pre-contract from Celtic

Mark Stewart - 22 year old Striker - Free, signed on pre-contract from Falkirk

Yves Makabu Ma Kalambay - 25 year old Keeper - Free, released by Swansea

Neal Trotman - 24 year old Defender © - Free, released by Preston

Gavin Peers - 25 year old Defender (RC) - 80k from Sligo Rovers

Sean McGinty - 17 year old Defender © - Free, released by Manchester United

Loans In

Jack Butland - 18 year old Keeper - Season long loan from Birmingham

Harry Kane - 18 year old Striker - Season long loan from Tottenham

Transfer Out

Gail Nludulu - 19 year old RM - 425k plus 30% sell on to Roma

Chris Taylor - 23 year old M(R/L) - 200k plus 10% sell on to Huddersfield

Deam Furman - 22 year old CM/DM - 200k plus 10% sell on to Motherwell

Dean Brill - 25 year old Keeper - 65k to Huddersfield

John Paul Kelly - 24 year old CM - 5k to Stevenage

Marcello Castellini - 38 year old Defender © - Free to Charlton

Player Out of Contract

Andy Todd - 36 year old Defender © - Signed pre-contract with Exeter

Deane Smalley - 22 year old RM - Signed with Walsall

Phil McGrath - 19 year old M(R/L) - Signed with Glenavon

Rodney McDonald - 19 year old Defender (LC) - Left club

The supporters are currently angry with me for selling Taylor and Brill to Rivals Huddersfield.

The media are projecting us for a 10th place finish. The Board expect a safe mid-table finish.

Season ticket sales were 2400, unchanged from last season.

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August 2011 Update: Oldham Athletic - npower league 1

August was a bit of a disappointment as we dropped points at home in matches that we should have won. Overall, we picked 8 points from 4 league matches to finish the month 6th in the Table. In the League Cup we advanced past the 1st Round with a 3-1 win over Morecambe, but Wolves knocked us out in the 2nd Round with us suffering a 3-0 drubbing. The Highlight of the month was our convincing 3-1 away win over MK Dons.

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On the transfer front we managed to fill the gaps in midfield with what I believe are quality signings.

August Transfers In

Andrew Shinnie - 22 year old CM/RM - 40k from Rangers

Oliver Norwood - 20 year old CM - Free, released from Manchester United

Nathan Rooney - 18 year old CM - Free, released from Wolves

Christian Montano - 19 year old Striker - Free, released from West Ham

August Loans In

Billy Knott - 18 year old LM/LB - 3 month loan from Sunderland to provide cover for injured Ebou Sillah

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Oldham Athletic Squad - August 31, 2011

Keepers

Yves Makabu Ma Kalambay*

Jack Butland - On loan from Birmingham

Paul Gerrard - Player/Keeper Coach

Defenders

Kieran Lee (R/L)*

Paul Black (L)*

Gavin Peers (R/C)*

Neal Trotman ©*

Reuben Hazell ©

Sean McGinty ©

Cedric Evina (L)

Yahn Nsaku ©+

Carl Winchester ®+

Midfielders

Graham Carey (L)*

Andrew Shinnie (RC)*

Dale Stephens ©*

Ritchie Jones (RC)*

Oliver Norwood ©

Nathan Rooney ©

Alan Cawley (RC)

Filipe Morais (R/L)

Ebou Sillah (LC)

Billy Knott (L) - On 3 month loan from Sunderland

Medi Abalimba © - Currently listed as available for loan

Larnell Cole (RC) On loan at Fleetwood

Kirk Millar (R/L) On loan at Altrincham

Matty Carr ©+ On loan at Barrow

Strikers

Reuben Reid*

Mark Stewart*

Warren Feeney

Christian Montano

Harry Kane - On loan from Tottenham

Djeny Bembo Leta - Currently listed as available for loan

Mohamed Bourhami + - On loan at Cambridge

* Denotes first choice 11 as of August 31.

+ Denotes players promoted from Youth Team

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September 2011 Update: Oldham Athletic - npower league 1

September saw us pick up 9 points from 5 league matches to move up to 5th in the Table. However, we can't seem to stop leaking goals. Our Keeper play has been outstanding but the back four have been very inconsistent. Hopefully our new defensive signings will settle in sooner rather than later. The highlight of the month was the 3-1 win at Swindon.

The Morecambe match turned out to be a very costly win as we had 4 players come off injured. Most notable was Striker Mark Stewart who will be out for 4 to 5 months with a muscle tear. Stewart hit the ground running this season as he scored 7 goals in 9 appearances thus far this season. And Midfield playmaker Dale Stephens twisted his knee in the match and will be out for 3 to 4 weeks. I believe Oliver Norwood can step in for Stephens, but Stewart's goals will surely be missed.

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  • 3 weeks later...

October 2011 Update: Oldham Athletic - npower league 1

October started off well enough with a 2-1 victory over Leyton Orient, but injuries continued to plague us as Striker Reuben Reid twisted an ankle and missed the rest of the month. With starting Strikers Reid and Stewart out in addition to midfield playmaker Dale Stephens, our form dropped and we only mangaged 1 win in our next 4 league matches to slip to 8th in the Table.

The highlight of the month was our 6-2 win over Accrington in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy led by a hat-trick by Striker Djeny Bembo-Leto.

On the transfer front, LM Billy Knott's loan was up and he returned to Sunderland. Knott did a good job covering for injured LM Ebou Sillah scoring a goal and picking up an assist in 6(6) appearances. 18 year old Striker Jamie May was bought in from Newcastle on a short-term loan after Reid's injury to give us some additional options up front.

Hopefully we are past the injury crisis as Reid, Stephens and Sillah all started training at the end of the month.

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  • 2 weeks later...

November 2011 Update: Oldham Athletic - npower league 1

November was a bit of a disappointment as we could only manage to pick up 4 points in League and slipped to 9th in the Table. The only bright spot being a very good team performance in a convincing 4-1 win over Notts County.

We lost a heartbreaker to Shefiield Wednesday in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. We outshot them 21-5 and had the bulk of possesion, but couldn't find the back of the net and went out in the PK shootout.

In the FA Cup we faired better winning against both Mansfield and Hartlepool in front of the home supporters at Boundary Park.

Our Striker crisis worsened as Reuben Reid fresh back in side, tore his calf muscle and will be out for another 5 months. Wareen Feeney then twisted his ankle in training the last week of the month and is expected to miss 4 to 5 weeks.

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