Martin Samuel on what Scholes should do

BETwEEN March 1, 1970, and November 10, 1994, Oldham Athletic had two managers. From that day to the present, they have had 24, including caretakers. No wonder Paul Scholes is taking his time over becoming No 25.

Versions of events unfolding at Boundary Park differ. Some have Scholes talking to the club in a purely advisory capacity, others report he is an interested party and could be installed next week.

That is the happier narrative, obviously. Scholes is a lifelong Oldham fan. How wonderful it would be if his expertise could drag them from the doldrums. You know, like Martin Johnson did with English rugby, or Alan Shearer with Newcastle.

Then again, maybe Scholes’s devotion makes it wiser to keep his distance. Most likely his Oldham term would end in disappointment and frustration — for him and them. This is a club that has been mired in the same division for 20 seasons — and in that time has had 23 managers.

So, the idea that Scholes could spend the next three seasons in the third tier, building, shaping, attempting to create an upwardly mobile Oldham Athletic, longterm, is ambitious.

A flirt with relegation and he would be gone. A run of defeats and the axe would fall.

His support, his status, would mean as little as Andy Ritchie’s 250 League games for the club between 1987 and 1995. A run of rotten results in 2001 and he was sacked just the same.

So too Graeme Sharp, so too John Sheridan, so too Dean Holden. All played for Oldham, all managed Oldham, and all were dumped by them, too.

This doesn’t make Oldham the bad guys, or in any way exceptional. It’s just a sign of the times. Nicky Barmby loved Hull City. Late in his career he returned to play for Hull. Then, when Nigel Pearson left, he agreed to manage them. He was appointed, full-time, on January 10, 2012, and sacked on May 8 that year, after a row about transfer funds.

Even miracle workers have a shelf life.

How long will Bournemouth be allowed to hover around the relegation places before the locals start doubting Eddie Howe?

‘The right job at the wrong time,’ Scholes called Oldham when passing up the opportunity to manage there in 2015. Yet when is the right time, given the modern game? Oldham were among the founding members of the Premier League, but how realistic is a return to the elite, considering the ambition and wealth of those in the Championship?

This is an age of insulating parachute payments, Chinese consortiums and super-agent advisors. Scholes has good connections at Manchester United still and could exploit the loan market through his friend Nicky Butt, but is that enough?

Oldham are currently 19th, a point off the League One relegation places. A run of bad results and the new manager might not even make it to the end of the January transfer window. Two of the last four permanent appointments were sacked on January 12, without completing so much as a full season.

That is the reality. Jimmy Frizzell and Joe Royle were Oldham’s two managers across more than 24 years, but football was different then. At the time Frizzell left, he was the second longest- serving manager in the League. Royle accepted a better job at Everton, and his 608 games in charge remain a record.

He took Oldham to the 1990 League Cup final, and to one minute from an FA Cup final — Manchester United equalised, won the replay and Oldham’s decline began — but Royle’s methods are no longer attainable.

He cleverly took good reserve players from clubs such as Manchester City and Leeds United and turned them into Premier League footballers. How could Oldham compete financially for a reserve at City now?

Go back to Frizzell’s time and not every campaign was promotion or bust. He got up to the old Division Two at the third attempt and

stayed eight seasons there with an average 14th-place finish before further stagnation was considered unacceptable.

more recently, oldham have gone through 23 managers remaining in the same division. Yes, they have come close to relegation, but so did Frizzell. In his first two Second Division campaigns, he came 18th and 17th.

Scholes will not be so benignly indulged. his knowledge, his connections, his sincere wish to help will not be valued as they once were. Time was, a few seasons mired in League one would be balanced against the pride of having such a great player in charge, providing there were signs of progress.

The positives would have been easily accepted. Scholes will do the best for the club he loves. Scholes is a great ambassador, an inspiring name to have above the door. who wouldn’t want his son learning football from Scholes?

And it’s all true — oldham could indeed build a youth policy simply from the progeny of star-struck mancunian dads.

But football isn’t like that any more. It has changed. No country for old boys, sadly.