OLDHAM ATHLETIC

LAST SEASON

LEAGUE TWO 14th FA CUP Fourth Round

LEAGUE CUP First Round TOP SCORER Callum Lang (16)

FANFILE KEITH GLEDHILL @kgquantum

The big talking point among the fans is yet another summer of uncertainty for Oldham Athletic. Our chairman’s modus operandi leaves the supporters well and truly scratching their heads. It’s never dull at Boundary Park, and sometimes you do wish for a soupçon of normality around the place.

This season will be different because Pete Wild – the head coach at the end of last season, formerly the academy coach and a lifelong Oldham fan – left the club. In his place, we’ve appointed Laurent Banide. “Who?” I hear you and every Oldham fan ask. A week later we appointed his assistant boss, one Bouziane Benaraibi. “Who?” I hear you all ask again...

Look out for Tom Hamer [below], who has got bucketloads of potential and is only 19 years of age. It would be no surprise to see him signed by someone higher up the food chain between now and this time next summer. Hamer is a solid right-back who can also play at centre-half – and he may need to, seeing as Oldham sold Player of the Year George Edmundson to Rangers and didn’t offer a new contract to his partner at the heart of the defence, experienced club legend Peter Clarke. The one change I’d make to the club would be to have player recruitment handled not only by the chairman and his brother, who just so happens to be the club’s sporting director.

Save the date for both of our games against Bradford City, our rivals from Yorkshire. Latics fans always travel in numbers, particularly for away games that are closer to home, and we’ll be there on August 17; then Bradford are bound to bring an excellent following to Boundary Park on February 1.

The fans’ opinion of the gaffer is that it remains to be seen if these two unknown Frenchmen can transform the fortunes of our club after many years, if not decades, in the doldrums. We’ll finish 14th again. I expect we’ll struggle at the start of the campaign, recover in October and November and slump over the Christmas period, then reach the 50-point mark by mid-march and tail off at the end.