Andy Buckley

 

Name: John Sheridan

Age: 43

Position: Manager

Club: Oldham Athletic

 

The Man and Player

John Sheridan was born in Stretford, Manchester in 1964. Although he began his football life at neighbouring Manchester City as a youth, he started his professional career over the Pennines at Leeds United in 1982. He made 276 appearances for the Yorkshire side scoring 55 goals.

He made the switch to Nottingham Forest in 1989 to make a solitary appearance and moved to Sheffield Wednesday the same year, where he played the best football of his career.

Sheridan was a cult figure at both Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday for scoring goals from set pieces and single-handedly opening up defences with his laser-guided passing. After leaving Wednesday in 1996, he had short spells at Birmingham City, Bolton Wanderers and Doncaster Rovers before signing for Oldham Athletic in 1998, admittedly his twilight years, where he went on to make 164 appearances scoring 16 goals, finally hanging up his boots in 2004.

Although English-born, Sheridan won his first cap for the Republic of Ireland in 1988 and went on to make 34 international appearances scoring 5 goals and was named in the 1990 and 1994 Irish World Cup squads.

The Manager

‘Shez’ as he is affectionately known by Oldham fans, retired from professional football in 2004 and took up a coaching role at the club. He was appointed caretaker manager briefly during the 2003/04 season and was eventually appointed team manager in 2006 replacing the departed Ronnie Moore after the former Rotherham boss was sacked.

In his first season at cash-strapped Oldham, Sheridan guided the Latics to 6th place in League One earning a play-off place, where they were then beaten in the semi-final by Blackpool who were eventually promoted to the Championship. The following season in 2007/08, again with limited resources and an injury-ravaged squad, Oldham narrowly missed out on the play-offs finishing a respectable 8th.

Sheridan favours the passing game he enjoyed as a player and his style of play was very much welcomed by Oldham fans when he arrived. The direct approach of his predecessor Ronnie Moore was hardly a crowd pleaser and Sheridan’s creative play along with his team’s blend of youth and experience has seemed to work well, resulting in a play-off place in his first season as manager.

Sheridan has become well-renowned for introducing younger members of his squad into the first team who have gone on to cement a place in the starting line-up. Neal Eardley and Chris Taylor were taken under Sheridan’s wing as a coach and are now very much part of his first team plans. As a result of their progression, they have also attracted the interest of several Championship clubs with Eardley even gaining international recognition, breaking into John Toshack’s Welsh squad, winning the first of his several caps during Sheridan’s reign.

 

Finest Moment in Management

Sheridan’s greatest moment so far arguably came in last year’s FA Cup Third Round, when he orchestrated Oldham’s victory over Premier League side Everton at Goodison Park. Everton boss David Moyes was rumoured to have selected an under-strength team to face Oldham but Sheridan had his own injury worries that day and threw several younger members of squad into the deep end, telling them to enjoy themselves. He was reported to have told his players to be fearless and it paid off when Gary McDonald’s fantastic 25-yard strike stunned the Premier League side and earned Oldham a place in the next round. A further reward was a place for Oldham in the annals of FA Cup giant-killing history.

Opinion

John Sheridan has the potential to do well as a manager beyond League One given his pedigree as a top-flight professional footballer together his with international experience. He has many contacts in the game but is still relatively young at the age of 43 and is fairly inexperienced. He has said that he still has a lot to learn but he has achieved two top-ten finishes at Oldham in League One with very limited resources.

Sheridan has publicly stated that he will look at his own position if he fails to get Oldham promoted at the third attempt next season, which perhaps suggests that he will move on if he feels that he has taken Oldham as far as he can. The former Irish international is well liked by both players and fans and has a great knack of nurturing young players and feeding them through to the senior side. Sheridan is also not afraid to use them in important games, demonstrating faith in his young charges.

I suspect that if Sheridan continues to impress in League One next season, two of his former clubs in Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday will be alerted to this and may request his services should a managerial vacancy arise.