80 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Oldham Athletic lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Oldham Athletic, another week without a signature from Josh Hawkes.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Dynel Simeu is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Josh Hawkes trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Oldham Athletic lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Newport County held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Oldham Athletic answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 David Green left the room before anybody could ask which.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Duván Riascos
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Oldham Athletic lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Duván Riascos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Oldham Athletic know it.
Marked 7.57. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad28 Sep 2026
5 new faces, and Oldham Athletic are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” David Green, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Tom Conlon's mistake
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Oldham Athletic had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at West Ham United, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manny Monthé is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Oldham Athletic will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Luke Hannant has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
A loan enquiry to Blackburn Rovers: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Oldham Athletic than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Duván Riascos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Oldham Athletic asked and Salford City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Calum Kavanagh has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manny Monthé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Oldham Athletic have made the call to Cardiff City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad31 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Oldham Athletic are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.