The cost of promotion

There has been a fair amount of discussion among the Oldham Athletic fanbase about the club’s financial situation in light of the fact that Micky Mellon’s transfer activity is strictly controlled this January – he needs to get players out through sales and loans before he can get anyone in.

We can assume that the outgoing players will be on competitive National League money rather than competitive League Two money, so it’s probably not as simple as one out, one in. It’s probably more like one-and-a-half or two out, one in.

Money is tight. In the last financial year for which figures are available, the club ran a £3 million operating loss. There are lots of reasons to believe that that number will be much higher when the next figures come out, and even the ones after that. Latics spent big last winter and previously to get out of the National League, bringing in high-quality and expensive ringers (all-time Oldham Athletic heroes to a man) to do the business.

It was imperative that Latics got promoted last season, even disregarding the fact that they went up a division for the first time in more than a third of a century. The restoration of the Elite Player Performance Plan academy was and is the thing. Promotion unlocked a vital part of Latics’ revenue-raising capacity for the long term.

The club hierarchy went full tilt at promotion because having an Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) academy is crucial to Latics’ future revenue mix. First, EPPP means Latics can recruit more and better talent. It also means that any players whom Latics develop through their academy attract compensation. The amounts are debatable – the Football Supporters Association and others have decried the compensation money that must be paid for young talent as derisory – but it is just one more protection of transfer revenue. Another alternative is to offer a promising teenager professional terms, which then puts any buying clubs into the normal and more lucrative madness of the transfer market.

Promotion, then, wasn’t just about a jolly down to Wembley, and those unbelievable three minutes in which Mr Nando’s and Kian Harratt drove everyone berserk. It was about the boring, sober long-term future of the club.

If the club are reluctant to spend this January as a means of stemming losses, thereby making the financial situation more stable and considerably less exciting, it’s okay by me.

Game off!

Latics’ scheduled game at home against Notts County tomorrow was called off yesterday due to a frozen pitch, meaning that the next time Micky Mellon’s side take the field, they’ll

have had two-and-a-bit weeks since their last competitive game – the blunderfest 1-1 draw with Chesterfield at Boundary Park on new year’s day.

There are pluses and minuses when a team is gifted a winter break. On the one hand, the players get some rest. Latics’ squad is, on average, older than most if not all of their League Two competitors, and a few of the older players with plenty of miles in their legs will benefit substantially from a less intensive football life. Tom Pett and Ryan Woods in particular have looked absolutely knackered at times, though have never lacked effort.

Everyone is still training, of course – the club has used Oldham Sixth Form College’s all-weather facilities rather than the frozen Chapel Road grass this week – but matches are much the bigger drain on physical and psychological reserves.

On the other hand, some players will develop a certain amount of rustiness during a break. This is unlikely to be through indiscipline: the institutional memory of Mellon sending Alex Reid to Wealdstone and James Norwood to Nando’s remains strong. It’s just natural to wind down a touch when you’re not playing competitive football.

In any case, every team in the league has the same problem. Fixtures at this time of the year often fall to the weather, so everyone has to find the balance between competitive preparation and giving players a breather. As of this moment, Latics have a tough return to action on Saturday 17 January against Cheltenham Town at Boundary Park. Latics hammered them 0-3 earlier in the season, Town have since lifted themselves off the bottom of the league and are now just two points behind Athletic having played a game more.

We don’t need to worry about fixture disruption yet…but we will if that game gets called off.