#WASHINGTON POST REPORTER DARRAN SIMON WINDOWS#

“It’s a new start, a new opportunity for the club, town and fans. “It’s a very important day… an emotional day,” he said. The news that Oldham’s new skipper was about to be announced had brought a crowd of a few hundred fans to the stadium.ĭarren Royle, Joe’s son and the club’s new chief executive, opened the proceedings. As the Oldham Evening Chronicle put it: “As the Chronicle went to press, a takeover of the club - by a ‘longstanding, successful local businessman’ - remained imminent.” And that word, “imminent”, was the headline on the front page.Īnd it was not only the bar that was busy. Which is why that same bar was packed with fans, staff, media and assorted well-wishers at 5pm on Thursday to find out who had stepped forward to save them. Oldham Athletic had become a football club so adrift that its owner was actively trying to stop its fans from watching the team. What followed were the embarrassing and farcical scenes of club staff trying to block their view with advertising hoardings.

#WASHINGTON POST REPORTER DARRAN SIMON WINDOWS#

They could see the action through the windows in the executive boxes in the stand, which is named after the manager who took Oldham to the top flight in 1991 and two FA Cup semi-finals in five seasons. It was meant to be behind closed doors but - typically for the Lemsagam regime - they forgot about the fans who had gathered for an impromptu wake in the Joe Royle Stand’s bar. With 11 minutes still to play, Oldham Athletic told their supporters the match had been abandoned in an attempt to disperse them, so there would be nobody to witness the last rites. The game that sealed their fate - a home defeat by local rivals Salford City, a former non-League team from the other side of Greater Manchester - was interrupted by fans protesting against the club’s deeply unpopular previous owner, Abdallah Lemsagam.

Let’s get on a steady keel.”Ī steady keel, a fitting aspiration for a man who has crossed oceans and a massive improvement on the sad, capsized, storm-tossed vessel Oldham Athletic have been in recent years.Ī founding member of the Premier League, Oldham were relegated to the National League, the fifth tier of English football, for the first time in their history in April. I want the people of Oldham to feel like they own the football club. Get them talking about it again in the chippy and the work canteen, and kids going to school with Oldham scarves on. “Let’s get the people of Oldham proud of the club again.

It’s happened before but that’s a long way off. We can’t start promising the Premier League. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work, and fun, along the way. “Where’s Oldham’s? It’s at the top of League One, banging on the door of the Championship. “Every football club has a natural level,” said the 72-year-old at a press conference arranged to announce his family’s takeover of the club on Thursday. But he is not promising any miracles at Oldham Athletic, the 127-year-old football club Rothwell has just rescued from four years of rancorous decline and almost certain bankruptcy.

Washington post reporter darran simon