Bring on the Shezurrection

"John Sheridan has offered to come back to Oldham Athletic to help boost their relegation fight, The Oldham Times understands. The Latics legend is even believed to have contacted the Lemsagam brothers saying he would be prepared to return to the dugout for FREE."

Oh please God let this happen. You know how I said last week that Abdallah needs to bin off his brother and bring in an experienced manager who knows this division? If he appoints Shez I will immediately sprint over to the ticket office and buy a half-season ticket. Even if Mo's still around like a mutating virus. The fact that Mo and Shez will absolutely hate each other and Shez will probably end up punching him makes it all the more appealing. It's the one thing that will make me break my boycott. I don't care if he's seen as a bit old fashioned in his coaching style now. I couldn't care less how it went for him at Swindon. He is exactly what we need right now.

It should be a no-brainer for Abdallah. It won't cost him anything if Sheridan will work for free. I genuinely think he'd keep to his word on that - it's not like he needs the money, he knows how much the fans love him and if Abdallah's got any sense he'll pay him a bonus if he keeps us up. It's the one thing that's guaranteed to bring the fans back. It'll give the club a huge lift. Will he break the habit of a lifetime and do what's best for the club?

Obviously it's not worked out with Abdallah and Shez before. He hadn't officially taken over when Shez left in September 2017, but he was on the scene and clearly involved in decision making. You don't tend to get more than a good half a season out of Shez now, though, and short-term relegation battles are what he does well. And my God isn't that what we desperately need right now? If Abdallah means what he says about avoiding relegation being the most important thing for the club right now - and it is - then he needs to get on the phone and invite Shez to Costa now. And of course there are no guarantees that he'd keep us up (Swindon fans seem very keen to tell us that), but he can't really do any worse than the team's current form, can he? Letting Shez manage us for free isn't the gamble, giving it to the inexperienced youth team manager for the rest of the season is. If we're going to go down, let's at least go down fighting. And swearing at referees.

Do I think Abdallah will do the obvious right thing? Well it's been clear as day for years that Mo needs to go and that hasn't happened. It was obvious to anyone who watched him that Urko Vera was a hilariously bad footballer, and he signed him not once but twice. So no, I'm not going to get my hopes up. But the offer's there, and we can dream.

Come on, Abdallah. You said you wanted the best for the club, you said you were focused on fighting relegation, you asked the fans to get behind the team. It's obvious what you need to do. And he doesn't even want paying. Bring on the Shezurrection.

*Artwork credit by @andyhusky on Twitter

Written by Arlene Finnigan. Image © andyhusky