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Oldham: you couldn't make it up

Oldham Athletic were in the Premier League when it was founded, now they are languishing in League Two and facing all sorts of problems.   It is. of course, never easy for clubs on the outer edge of Greater Manchester.

The Athletic has undertaken a well-informed in depth analysis, but the whole story is so complex that I am not sure that I have grasped it.  There is an extraordinary story about a plastic bag containing £48,000 in £20 notes being handed over to pay wages, although it has been denied.   One complication is that the former owners still own Boundary Park.

It is noted: 'Stretched finances have come to typify the turbulent reign of Lemsagam. Wages have consistently arrived late, while a sequence of winding-up petitions have been served by Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs. The lingering threat of administration was also staved off in June last year.'

They conclude: 'For all [Abdallah] Lemsagam says he has long-term plans to take Oldham up to the Championship, it is a club drifting along in the bottom half of League Two. Oldham’s average crowd last season fell by a fifth to 3,434 and season ticket holders for the current campaign have fallen to just 1,400. '

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