Micky Mellon says he will not take cut price for his players, or force them out, even though Latics must offload before they can buy.

There are a number of players who have dropped out of the Oldham manager's first team plans as the Scot moulds a squad that he feels is capable of mounting a sustained promotion push from the National League.

January has been a busy period for the club, with winger Ethan Walker arriving on loan from Blackburn Rovers, right wing back Sai Sachdev on loan from Sheffield United and striker Andrew Dallas on loan from Barnsley, while Tom Conlon and Oliver Hammond have signed permanent deals from Port Vale and Nottingham Forest respectively.

But there have yet to be any exits, despite interest in Alex Reid, Kurt Willoughby and Mark Shelton, among others.

That leaves Mellon's hands tied in terms of incomings while that situation continues, but it is one that he is relatively relaxed about, despite deadline day for Football League and Premier League clubs looming, with the cut-off 11pm on Thursday (February 1).

"We need to do a bit of housekeeping now and I've suggested to a number of players their futures would be better somewhere else to play first team football," said the Oldham boss.

"We believe we have a way of playing now and we are a wee bit top heavy in certain areas. We have been very honest about that.

"But they haven't felt it's the right place to go or the club haven't offered what we believe is a fair price for the wages they are getting here.

"But until we can move a few on we won't be doing much more business, which is a bit frustrating, because we have a lot of players who want to come to Oldham."

But Mellon says he is respectful of individuals' decisions.

"There's a human side to me that understands that. Players that have been signed here, a new manager's come in and wants to go a different way. That's just the way football works," he said.

"We've quite a few players that we would like to find football somewhere else for their careers' sake and free up some funds to try to bring players in. But until they find somewhere that suits them and their families they will remain here.

"It's frustrating because we would like to wave a magic wand so that we can bring in players I want to work forward with.

"It's just football. People would like for the situations to be dead easy - people move out and other people come in. It's not just Oldham."