Career Oldham Athletic A.F.C - My Philosophy

[SSolas]

CHOOSING THE SQUAD

I chose Oldham Athletic after watching the below video on the club, indicating they are in a really bad state at the moment. Oldham Althletic were founder members of the Premier League in 1992 but currently find themselves dangerously close to falling out of the English Football League. I wanted to see if my philosophy could change this clubs fortunes.

https://youtu.be/5t2FnXRCL7c 

FACILITIES & STADIUM

As you can see below, the Oldham Athletic infrastructure is actually quite good. The club has GOOD 1st team training facilities & BELOW AVERAGE youth facilities.The club's beloved stadium 'Boundary Park', holds 13,513 supporters with just under half that number attending weekly currently. 

STAFF, FINANCE & TRAINING

As always, I delegated the Training Regime to my Assistant Manager Colin West who is their current Assistant in real life & knows the club inside out. The finances of the clun are SECURE now because a lot of original players have left the club who were not good enough but on very high wages for this level. The staff room is full, with every position filled & Coaches are trained to a GOOD standard.

SQUAD

On arriving at the club, the squad was a reasonable size with 1st team & youth level players. Something struck me immediatly was that the club possessed high value players, on good wages who in my own opinion, were NOT good enough for this club. I changed this culture of the club by releasing a whole bunch of players, getting their wages off the books & instead, buying good 16-30 year olds who were great at PACE,DECISIONS & TEAMWORK. A bonus point to make is that Nicke Kabamba was my highest spend & worth every penny, had an outstanding season.

TACTIC

I, of course, used my Attacking Tiki-Taka Tactic for this career - It was risky implementing a passing game at this level but has provided constant success on Football Manager Mobile. The new players & new system gelled very well, as seen below(Squad Chemistry), with us going a remarkable 19 games without defeat! It was not just defensively solid though, with Nicke Kabamba scoring 33 goals this season.

THE RESULTS

In my 1st season managing the struggling club Oldham Athletic A.F.C, we ended up winning the Sky Bet League Two! We also  had excellent cup run, losing to Charlton in the final of the Papa Johns Trophy in penalties! I end the career with a 61% win rate, the best defensive record as well as a healthy financial position with the club spending approx £13k under it's budget!

In conclusion of this career, I feel sorry for the Oldham Athletic A.F.C supporters who have missed one thing so desperatly for so long - HOPE. To rich owners, football clubs can appear like the ultimate symbol of wealth & fun BUT that completely dismisses the die-hard Oldham Athletic A.F.C supporters who turn up home/away, day/night & rain/shine wanting one thing - HOPE. To me, this career has shown me that Oldham Athletic A.F.C CAN be successful once again but changes definitely are required, namely - Securing the clubs finances & buying better quality players.

STEPS FOR SUCCESS

MANAGERS STATS

LEAGUE STATS