Look beyond the chimney stacks

DECAYING: Large parts of Boundary Park, like the now flattened Lookers Stand. Athletic

Sports Editor BOB YOUNG joins in the Latics stadium debate

I STRUGGLE to set the V+ programme on the TV, predictive text on the mobile may as well be in Sanskrit and Facebook looks like The Devil’s own work to me.

But when it comes to Oldham Athletic moving home and looking forward to a brighter future, then even an old fool like me can see the light.

I was lucky enough to be the Chronicle’s Latics reporter at the end of the Jimmy Frizzell years and through the Joe Royle era when the club enjoyed its finest hour.

Memories of super Saturdays and marvellous midweek games come flooding back.

I also enjoyed helping (in a small way) author Stewart Beckett compile the first official club history book ‘Team from a Town of Chimneys”.

It was fascinating stuff.

But nostalgia is a thing of the past.

Boundary Park - for all those glorious moments - is a crumbling edifice, and for Athletic to stay put while other clubs reach forward is to consign them to the pages of history.

When the Three Amigos took over six years ago with Athletic on the very brink of extinction they promised to deliver a club which would be self-sufficient and run on proper business lines - not prey to the whim and fancy of some egotistical individual with a few quid to throw about (remember him?).

Whatever you think of some of their subsequent decisions, I think it’s fair to say that Messrs Corney, Blitz and Gazal have tried their best to bring financial stability to the club - and it’s cost them a few bob from their own pockets along the way.

But the time has come for bold measures - and a switch to the Lancaster Club site appeals as a viable solution.

It’s not as if Athletic would be trailblazers.

Some of the country’s top clubs - like Arsenal, Manchester City and Sunderland - have left their iconic homes and moved to pastures new.

Add the likes of Wigan, Bolton, etc, etc. More recently, Colchester and Shrewsbury have linked up with their local authorities and upped sticks to new “community” facilities.

Herein lies the key.

The club cannot live in splendid isolation - nor, to be be fair, have Athletic tried to do so, having forged links with such as the local health authority, schools and learning centres.

At times, though, it seems Athletic are vilified in some quarters, no matter what they try to do.

Some of the critics would do well to look at what has been achieved with similar schemes in other towns and cities where large areas have been regenerated and re-envigorated.

Athletic’s proposed new venue is only four miles down the road, but it could be light years away in offering facilities for young and old - footie fans or not.

I hope a vision for the future is not obscured by those old chimney stacks!