Welcome
to today's issue of
BOUNDARY
BULLET-zine
The
Daily On-line e-zine for 209
Oldham Athletic Supporters
Worldwide
Today's
Edition for
12th May 2000
Welcome to a new
subscriber in Oldham
Today's
Headlines
Graham
offered one year deal
Oldham
Evening Chronicle
Latics
in talks on Graham's future
RICHARD
GRAHAM'S future will be decided in the next few days after talks this morning
between the defender and Athletic officials. Graham
(25) is at the end of his contract and can leave on a free transfer under
the Bosman ruling. Athletic want to
keep their longest-serving player, but the situation is clouded by his
long-standing injury jinx. Graham (pictured
right) has started only 15 games in each of the last two seasons and, with
his problems continuing, it would be a financial to risk to offer him a
long-term contract. Athletic are likely
to rule out that option and could instead go for a monthly deal or one
which is based on appearances. But that wouldn't offer much security to
the big Yorkshireman, who burst on to the scene as a teenager during Athletic's
stay in the Premiership. Graham's biggest
concern is a knee-cartilage injury which ruled him out for nine months
until he made a comeback in September.
He
played 10 consecutive games, only to pick up a back complaint and later
strain a hamstring while playing in the garden with his son. Despite
those setbacks, Graham would still attract interest if he turned down a
contract and put himself on the market. With
no fee involved, a well-off club might take a chance on his fitness and
hope he regains his old, high-quality form A
third of Athletic's professionals are currently up for sale as Andy Ritchie
tries to lower a sky-high wage bill. There
have been enquiries for several of those players — including Mark Allott
and Scott McNiven, who have refused new terms — but no firm offers as yet.
Teamtalk
Oldham
Graham
offered new deal
Richard
Graham has been offered a new one year deal at the club and the 25 year
old is now understood to be considering the offer. Graham, whose contract
is up during the summer, has missed most of the last two seasons with one
injury after another. Ritchie outlined the deal to the big defender following
talks on Friday morning and the 25 year old went away to consider the offer.
Graham arrived at Boundary Park as a promising 16 year-old and made his
debut in a 1993 home game against Manchester United. But his career was
put on hold after he suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury and that
has seriously affected his first team opportunities and it remains to be
seen what type of contract he will be offered.
Boss'
praise for duo
Andy Ritchie
has been singing the praises of defenders Paul Jones and Mark Hotte following
a breakthrough season for the two players. The youngsters broke into the
team last season and haven't looked back since. In fact, they were among
the first names on Ritchie's lips when it came to picking his side. "They
have been real finds for us and they were two of the bonuses of the season.
Mark was a revelation and Paul's form made him a permanent fixture. They
both have pace and they also work well with Shaun Garnett, who is our rock,"
mused Ritchie. Yet at the start of last season neither player had any ideas
in which direction their careers were moving. Twenty-one year old Hotte
was a regular in the reserves and was even expected to move on from Boundary
Park last summer. However, injuries let him back into the first team picture
back in September and he took his chance superbly. Jones, who is also 21,
was spotted by coach Billy Urmson playing non-league football with Unibond
League side Leigh RMI. He had been shown the door by Tranmere and had no
second thoughts when the Latics offered him a contract until the end of
the season and signed on in November. He was used mainly as a substitute
at first but started the last 14 games of the season. Jones was always
determined he was good enough to make the grade in pro soccer and he set
out to grab his second chance. Ritchie claims: "Both lads will be an important
part of the side for next season."
Season
ticket boost
The
club are pleased with season ticket sales so far and are hoping that sales
continue at a healthy pace over the summer. Revenue has doubled on this
time last season as supporters cash in on bigger discounts which are being
offered. The cash-strapped Latics, knowing they need to pull in as much
money as they can during the lean summer months, have offered a 15% discount
on season tickets bought before the end of this month. Chief Executive
Alan Hardy: "It is still early days, but we are pleased with the way things
are going so far. The extra discount, it was 10% the previous season, is
providing attractive and we hope more people will take advantage of it
before the month is out."Teamtalk
Sheffield United
Toon defender
tracked
Neil Warnock is
expected to firm-up his interest in Newcastle defender Carl Serrant over
the summer. The 24-year-old full-back is a player well known to Warnock
having played under his tutorage at Oldham and Bury. Warnock lined up a
loan move for Serrant soon after taking charge at the Lane in December
but the ex-England Under-21 international suffered an injury which required
surgery, scuppering Warnock's plans. Serrant appears to be surplus to requirements
at St James' Park and Magpies boss Bobby Robson is expected to off-load
him before the start of next season. Warnock is planning to switch Wayne
Quinn from defence to midfield, creating a vacancy at left-back and Serrant
would be the ideal man to take over. A potential stumbling block could
be the player's personal demands, having been used to the Premiership gravy
train.
Contributions
and letters should be sent to Gary
Davies by e-mail at [email protected].Boundary
Bullet-zine Archive can be found at http://www.geocities.com/laticsgary.geo.The
views expressed on this e-zine are not the views of Oldham Athletic
F.C. nor necessarily the views of the Editor.This
e-zine is a unofficial publication NOT sanctioned by Oldham Athletic Football
Club.The
editor will not publish any letters containing bad language.This
e-zine is written using Microsoft Outlook Express and is best viewed with
the HTML (rich) text option enabled.