Chris Taylor is one of the few Athletic players to come out of the debacle of losing at home in the FA Cup to Cheltenham with any credit, but the club still fear that he may get snapped up during the January transfer window. Local boy Taylor is only 21 but is this season's top goalscorer and is consistently performing well. The Latics have turned down several substantial summer bids for the flame-topped player who is contracted with the club until the summer of 2010.John Sheridan confessed, "Chris is doing very well and he'll go on to a higher level - if I was a manager somewhere else with money to spend, I would buy him. Hopefully he'll play at a higher level for Oldham, but good luck to him because at the moment you know he's going to play well in every game. It sounds like I'm trying to sell him, which I'm definitely not because he's important to us, but he's a very accomplished player. He's playing very well and if he carries on performing like that we'll lose him."
"He's doing it every week, which is what other managers will be looking at, and it's just the way he plays that impresses you. Like I said, I don't want to lose Chris Taylor and I'm not trying to sell him, but he's a good player with a good attitude. He comes in every day and trains like he wants to be a successful footballer - some of the other lads around his age don't do that, they think they can have an off-day. They should be following his example because Chris is a 110-per-center in training and in games."