Oldham Athletic – The next Bury FC?

As an Oldham athletic fan since 1995, I unfortunately missed the glory days when we were one of the founding members of the premier league and spent 2 seasons in the top league in England.

Since then we dropped into the third tier in 97 where we spent 21 consecutive seasons before being relegated to the fourth tier in 2018. Excluding A.F.C. Wimbledon, If a relegation to the national league was to take place Oldham would have the unwanted record of being the first team to play in the premier league. to drop out of the football league.

Since 1998, all we have to show for it is relegation go the fourth tier, 2 playoff semi finals appearances, a handful of fa cup shocks including Man City in 2005, Everton away in 2008 and the most recent big one with being Liverpool 2013 with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez & Raheem Sterling on the pitch & the ched Evans scandal whilst at the time he was a convicted rapist which caused a number of death threats towards women working at the club and delaying of wages being paid to staff, there is a never quiet week as an Oldham athletic supporter

The uncertainty of the Abdallah Lemsagam Era

Since January 2018, a former football agent became the chairman which has been coming for a long time as changes need to be made as Simon Corney became stale and started to begin not being able to fund the club. to take the club in the right direction.

Corney who was well documented in stating he would only step aside when the club is ran by someone who take the club forward. 5 months later into the Abdallah reign we would be relegated on the final day of the season.

In the space of 20 months , we have had 6 different managers which shows how trigger happy abdallah is in changing managers with an average of 3 months & 10 days so Dino Maamria, the current manager will be lucky to last until the start of 2020 going off that average.

Since the Abdallah era began, different players have left the club. Anthony Gerrard & Jack Byrne both left the club over disciplinary actions with the latter being sacked over a training incident which left one player with a broken leg.

Then we have Ousmane Fane who was on the end of Byrne’s bad tackle then left the club without a trace & with no acknowledgment whatsoever from the club. The only reason Oldham supporters found out was due to Fane’s Instagram account saying goodbye

Peter Clarke who was Oldham captain from 2016 to 2019 and gave us 3 good years. He led by example and always gave 100% when in a Oldham shirt however yet again there was not enough acknowledgement by the club when someone who was loved so much by the fans and a leader who we should have kept to be strong defensively at a league 2 level. Clarke who is currently playing for league 1 high flying Fleetwood playing week in and week out.

Worryingly Abdallah has already lost a good chunk of the Oldham supporters. The Latics played MK dons in the first league game of the 2018–19 season. where 4367 were in the attendance where in comparison with the current season where Oldham played crewe and a big drop of home fans with 3467 in attendance. To lose 900 home fans not attending the first home game of the season puts it in perspective that fans are losing all hope & the blueprint of the club.

Within the space of 2 years, Craig Davies, Anthony Gerrard, Jose Baxter, George Edmundson, Jack Byrne & Paul Scholes have had some choice words for Mr Lemsagam with the way the club is being ran and some have even compared the club to a circus.

In a recent fans forum, fans did express their feelings towards Abdallah & his brother Mo who is currently in a sporting director role bringing in the majority of the players and from a fans point of view there is a massive uncertainty for the future for the club going forward.

What is crystal clear at the moment, fans have lost faith and at times impossible part with hard earned money and to get behind an owner we don’t trust and overall a club that is unrecognisable to long suffering fans. Major changes are required and hopefully this can be done before it’s too late.