John Sheridan Linked With Bolton Wanderers Job

Oldham Athletic manager John Sheridan has been linked with the vacant manager's job at Bolton Wanderers. Sheridan will be a familiar name to many Wanderers, having played for Bolton between 1996 and 1998. The midfielder was a full Republic of Ireland international and has gone on to have a decent managerial record in the lower leagues.

He has changed Oldham's fortunes in his most recent stint at the club having taken the reigns in the relegation zone and guiding them to safety this year (with a 45% win rate).

My knowledge of Sheridan comes from his very successful days as Plymouth Argyle manager. As a proud Cornishman I have always kept an eye on the nearest professional club we have (a full 2 hours away). He took over Argyle in a situation very similar to the one at  Bolton. The club had recently gone through a financial crisis and found itself on the brink of oblivion. The squad was chopped to the bone and players from the youth team became the new squad. They looked likely to drop out of the football league all together but he managed to salvage safety for the Pilgrims. Relying only on the youth team and free transfers, he changed the relegation candidates in to play-off semi-finalists. He then left the club to move back up north for family reasons.

Personally I'd be more than happy with his appointment. He has a proven track record of stopping the rot at a club in situations like this. He did it with Oldham and he did it at Plymouth. Any manager taking over will have to do it here as well. He also has a record of bringing through young players in to the first team which is now a must for any new manager given the success of this years graduates. He helped bring through and nurture a number of Plymouth players including Curtis Nelson; a player I've recently made the case for signing.  He has been involved with reshaping teams from top to bottom and shown he has enough of an eye for a player to deal with having to bring in a whole new playing squad.

Oldham have released a statement distancing Sheridan from the job tonight which is odd given there has been no big media story about it. No smoke without fire me thinks.