ABDALLAH Lemsagam has called for Latics fans to come together in a rare address to the club’s supporters.

Speaking to the club website from his home in Dubai, the Oldham owner says he believes only a “minority” of fans are dissatisfied with the club’s current direction, Harry Kewell’s side 20th in the League Two table.

The former Leeds and Liverpool winger was the eighth managerial appointment by the Moroccan former football agent since he took over in January 2018.

A survey from supporters’ group Push The Boundary last month revealed almost 90 per cent of the 1,100 fans polled thought Lemsagam was not the man to take the club forward.

He insists however he is still embracing the challenge of running Latics and believes all fans need to back the club.

“We’re working hard and I’m still committed to take this club in the best direction I can,” Lemsagam said in the club’s video.

“We’re working hard on the training ground to spend some money there for the future, there’s also the North Stand.

“There’s a minority of fans who are against the club and we need to bring them back to get the club together.

“Like I say, and I repeat many times, it’s always the club first and nobody is bigger than the club.

“Every manager, every player, we’re all working under the club and that’s why we’re trying to find a solution for it.

“That’s why I hope the minority of the fans will support the manager and the club. Social media now is going very crazy and some of the players and managers go on social media and they see fans speaking badly about the club.

“We hope this is changing and we go all positive and all together because in the end we want this club to succeed.

“It’s not about the owner, or the manager, or the players, it’s about the club.

“The club is a tradition and has been for 125 years. Let’s support this club together and take it back to where it belongs.”

Lemsagam freely admits he has made mistakes, the club staving off the threat of administration in March having also been late paying wages at the start of 2020.

The owner is confident however that in Kewell and chief executive Karl Evans he has the right men in place to run things day-to-day as he remains in Dubai.

He said: “We’re still learning, there’s nobody going to come in and learn straight away.

“It takes time, which is normal. Every business is the same.

“I’ve been a football agent but it’s not the same as owning a club. There’s a lot of things to look after and that’s why we have Karl doing a very good job with his staff and the coaches doing a very good job and the sporting director.

“All of them are working and we’ll learn from mistakes.

“I admit we’ve made a lot of mistakes. We trusted a lot of people and if they bring in the wrong player, cost the club a lot of money, it’s not easy.

“We made a lot of mistakes at the start, it was the beginning and we were still learning.

“Now I think we are in the right direction with the manager and the recruitment of players.”

That recruitment is carried out by Kewell and Lemsagam’s brother Mohamed, the club’s sporting director.

The man at the top however laughed off notions that his head coach’s team selections are influenced from above.

It comes with last year’s club captain David Wheater not likely to feature for the first team having been in dispute with the Latics hierarchy over proposed pay cuts to help the club through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lemsagam said: “Of course the coach is picking the team, it’s a very silly question.

“What do you need a coach for if you’re going to choose yourself? That’s his job and his responsibility.

“If the club does well he still has a job if it isn’t then that’s part of the game.

“Every coach decides which formation he plays, which player he’s choosing and everything, it’s up to him.

“There’s nobody telling him. You have a coach for that.

“Harry’s a workaholic, he knows what he’s doing. There’s a long way to go, he’s got a very young team who are working hard and we hope the results will come.”