The Case Against Oldham Athletic’s Owner
During the 2017/18 season, Abdallah Lemsagam completed his takeover of Oldham Athletic. I don’t think he’s ever been particularly popular in and around Oldham, but it’s safe to say that currently, as Oldham sit once again at the bottom of the Football League in the Autumn (the third year in a row), he has never been more unpopular.
The chaos associated with his takeover (surely a warning to anyone seeking another takeover mid-season right now) arguably relegated the club from League One in 2017/18, as a significant nose-dive in the club’s fortunes mid-season led to the relegation the club suffered into the Football League’s basement.
The time since that takeover has been associated with a lot of turmoil off the field, with player wages not being paid, a number of players being badly treated, winding up orders, and a saga over the North Stand. There’s a remarkably detailed timeline here for the interested. On the field, the early years saw a succession of seriously underwhelming players, often appearing from French (very) lower leagues (and subsequently returning there or thereabouts).
The early years also saw an incredible frequency of managerial changes, with some very dubious appointments — most notably Laurent Banide. See below for a chart of the tenures of managers back to 2015 in terms of number of matches. The shortest tenure was that of Paul Scholes, followed by Banide, who had a couple more matches than Darren Kelly under the former owner.
The entire period has seen the owner’s brother, Mohamed Lemsagam, in place as Director of Football, with the rather obvious charge of nepotism as head coach after head coach departs.
The level of unrest has firmly bubbled over in the last week, after a shockingly bad performance at Bristol Rovers was followed by a lamentable home defeat by Colchester. Two matches against teams who will likely make up the middle to lower regions of the table come May.
The owner is undoubtedly an absent owner. Which isn’t necessarily good — or necessarily bad. Though it probably is bad given the nature of football clubs. He clearly signs the cheques. Some fans argue that having to sign cheques is a sign of the level of bad management at the club, but it’s not. Aside from big incomes from historic big player transfers, clubs at this level do not return profits. In 2019/20, the Deloitte Football Finance Report noted that pre-tax combined losses in the Football League were £565m, or £7.8m per club (£18m at League Two, or £750,000 per club). It is not a profit-making business.
Which begs the question: why does Abdallah Lemsagem still own Oldham Athletic?
It’s hard to make the case, given everything, that he is a good owner. But then, I don’t think that should be the bar that is set in the real world. Oldham haven’t had a “good” owner for decades. We can look back now on JW Lees with some fondness which is insane for someone who was part of Stop The Rot in his youth, as I was. But that ought to be a warning nonetheless. We did not think things could get any worse than Lees and Stott, but how wrong we were. Chris Moore seemed legit.
So, in the classic breakdown, we’re probably left to distinguish, if we can, between mad, bad or evil.
Two years ago, with Banide, and with some of the shockingly bad players of that era, I could be persuaded the man was dangerous (evil), and could well be asset stripping the club.
But now, I’m less sure. Why take so long about it? Why continue to subsidise the club, as he does? The absence of any understanding of that motive is unsettling, as is the detailed timeline of players going unpaid, players leaving after disputes, and the club being bottom of the league.
He could simply be mad, I guess. Happy throwing his money away, from his base in Dubai, on a football club in the North West of England. Keeps his brother entertained. The comments by a director on talkSPORT today do hint back in that direction — a clear detachment from what’s going on around Boundary Park.
I also thought that their involvement was related to their previous (current?) activities as football agents. Certainly, the first few years of French players arriving gave a lot of credence to that idea. Trying to push their players through to get better deals in England. But Brexit appears to have scuppered that. Equally, it could be that they realised that those players, by and large, were not up to scratch, and started recruitment more actively influenced by their Head Coach. Could be.
It’s clear that the recruitment in Summer 2020 was influenced by Kewell, and it’s clear the recruitment in Summer 2021 has been Curle led. So I don’t buy that Mohamed Lemsagam is dictating affairs. Keith Curle is not the kind of man who will stick around if he is undermined.
There’s no need to give them the benefit of the doubt though, and so if we focus on Brexit, that has removed perhaps the main reason I thought for owning the club.
In which case, is he angling to sell? This doesn’t appear to be the case. Push The Boundary say there has been at least two approaches for the club, both rejected as not offering the asking price.
There’s really not enough information here to go on, but it suggests Abdallah is not desperate to be rid of the club. Writing the cheques isn’t crippling him financially, either. That or the Covid-19 money from the EFL is keeping things going.
There’s the suggestion that it means he has too high a valuation of the club — which really is an odd criticism, given how highly all Latics fans value the club. Given there are vultures knocking about as Rochdale’s very recent case shows, it should be a reassurance that any old bid isn’t being accepted.
Given all of this, I am lukewarm about the protests. It’s not that I think Abdallah is a wonderful owner. He’s clearly not, and it would be great to have owners like Brentford, Forest Green, or Accrington.
I just don’t see how the protests bring that about. A better owner has had decades to make themselves known, and to pay a reasonable price for the club. And yet we’ve only had progressively worse owners. The next ones could be worse.
For all we know (the owner is too secretive) the current owner could be half decent, but inherited well over 20 years of bad management.
So what from here?
I’d like to see the owner appear more. It is a football club he owns, not any old private enterprise. The fans are stakeholders, and rightly demand in return for their loyalty, more than any old private enterprise offers its customers. The club cannot succeed without the backing of its fans, and certainly cannot succeed whilst there are ongoing protests.
If the owner appears more, hopefully a bit more about his motivations can become clear. English is undoubtedly not his favoured language of communication, but that should not be a barrier to better communication.
I’d also like to see our fans take concrete steps towards becoming a community-owned club. I’d love to be involved — though I don’t have any money, alas. What provisions do the Trust and Push The Boundary have in place if the owner does simply decide to stop signing the cheques as part of selling up?
The long term future of the club has to be as a community owned club — that way fans are properly represented in decisions being made, and properly invested in the club. But becoming a community owned club is hard — not least, there needs to be some serious financial backing from the fan base.
I genuinely don’t believe relying on another owner to come along is a viable, sustainable strategy, and that’s at the root of my misgivings about the protests. That and throwing anything on to the pitch (or invading it) is a big no-no for me.
We have no guarantees that the next owner isn’t another Chris Moore. He fooled us in Stop The Rot. We have no guarantees the current one isn’t, either. A new owner could fool the Trust and Push The Boundary — since that’s what fraudsters do. There are no easy solutions here, and as many Latics fans have found out now we’re getting nationwide coverage, it is actually complicated…
