JOHN Sheridan believes his budget will be sufficient enough to build a squad capable of promotion back to the Football League.

In a statement made by the Oldham Athletic board in the aftermath of relegation to the National Conference, they accepted responsibility for relegation which "represents a total failure" and that the budget for next season will remain the same.

The statement continued: "The plan for next season starts now. The objective is clear, promotion and a return to the EFL.

"Our budget will be unchanged due to EFL parachute payments and we want to start preparations now.

"With backing and preparation, we think he will get this club promoted back to the EFL, which is where it belongs."

Latics were limited in the amount they could spend on players last season because of a transfer embargo imposed after the club took out a loan with the EFL to offset the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Those restrictions are set to be lifted in a new league, under a new governing body, although the outstanding balance will still have to be paid back to the EFL as per the original loan agreement.

But fans have expressed their concerns that the budget will not be big enough to compete at that level.

Sheridan, however, admits he has not got preoccupied with the size of his budget because he wants players who are motivated by football and not finances.

“I’m not worried about budgets," he said.

“I’ve never been greedy, some people are and it’s wrong. when I was playing it was never about money, I liked to get home and be with my family.

"Don’t get me wrong money always helps and I’ve been very lucky playing football and been involved in football for 40 years.

"If you want to play football, you play football don’t you.

"But I think we've got a budget that we'll be able to compete with in the league and there will be plenty of players."

And Sheridan, whose retained list has yet to be formally announced, expects there will be a big pool of players on the market to select from this summer.

"There’s going to be a lot of players; other players who have done well in this league and know what this league’s all about," he said.

“We’ve just got to get the right mix, hopefully we do that and get the right team. We’ve just got to be strong for a difficult division."