Talbot here for long haul

Last updated : 06 April 2004 By The Chairman

As the club creep closer to the relegation zone Brian Talbot has insisted that he is still here for the long haul. It’s a strange statement considering that his remit from his new employers was that “relegation was not an option.”

Talbot said, “My brief when I came here was never to just keep us up, it was to look after Oldham Athletic for at least three or four years. Everything must be run correctly, and I’m looking way beyond the last game of the season. Would I have uprooted from the south if I was only thinking about the next few weeks or months? No, I took this job as a long-term proposition. We’ll do everything we possibly can to stay in this division for next season, but I’m committed to the same job whatever happens.”

Situated just one point above the drop zone, Talbot thinks that the battle will go to the last game of the season. He went on, “The squad has to improve significantly, which was something we tried to do before the transfer deadline but without much success. Either we couldn’t afford them or the players we wanted refused to come here, and that shows it’s difficult to attract people to a struggling club. At the moment, we’ve got far too many young players for a relegation dogfight — the likes of Adam Griffin, Calvin Zola, Wes Wilkinson and Danny Hall had never played league football before this season — but that’s something we have to get used to. Hopefully I can improve people over time, but the first job is to organise them better so we win enough points to stay up. It’s difficult trying to change things when the players are used to a certain style, but change things I definitely will. The team mentality has to follow what I believe is the right way to play football. And, while that can’t happen overnight, it’s all part of the longer-term planning.”