Chairman Simon Corney has revealed the reason why his star players have departed this season, and he puts it down to the agents who encourage the players to move. Both James Tarkowski and Jose Baxter have left to join Brentford and Sheffield United respectively, clubs that are heavily bankrolled.
Corney said, “When clubs come in and offer big money because they have a benefactor, then players and particularly their agents — and in both cases, this happened — have had their heads turned. Agents make no money if a player stays at a club. They make plenty if a player goes and the player can double or treble their wages. It is not a case of Oldham don’t pay. Even if we doubled their salary we wouldn’t be able to keep them. When players get offered three or four times what they are on, they are going to leave. If Arsenal can’t afford to hang on to Robin van Persie at £150,000 a week, what can you expect? It is football and it’s not just at Oldham but at all the other clubs too. Your hands are tied sometimes.”
“Realistically we’re a League Two club playing in League One. If you look at our crowds, we have an amazing hard core there, but people have to wake up and realise that our support is at League Two level. We keep ourselves in League One artificially and it is a dangerous game to play. Every day we are paying down bills and trying to get a bit more done (on the new stand). There is a long way to go. It won’t be easy to finish it, but we will get there.”