THAT time of the year is upon us yet again where an Oldham Athletic manager takes his last step out of the door of Boundary Park and leaves his office vacant.

This time round it is Keith Curle, the man who Abdallah Lemsagam handed a two-year deal at the start of the season.

In a statement sent out in September (the one which included the broken promise regarding the three-year plan) the owner said that “Keith is a good Head Coach for us and has the right experience to help us do well in League Two”. Just 79 days later, his tenure is over.

A statement released amidst rising protests from fans, he professed support for Head of Finance Shahed Alam, CEO Karl Evans and head coach Keith Curle. One thing connects all of them — they’ve all now left.

Now it’s time to try it again, get a manager who can turn things around, who has the right experience and will get Latics to where the ownership believes they should be. Tenth time lucky?

Not all of the blame can be placed at the feet of the owners, however. Curle had to operate on a small budget, but time and time again the issues with his tactics were highlighted as opposing teams ran rings round us, calamitous defensive mistakes characterising his period at the helm.

When Carl Piergianni is being your biggest goal threat when you have the likes of Dylan Bahamboula and Davis Keillor-Dunn in your team, then you find yourself with a glaring problem. Curle had the opportunities to change things up, but it never worked.

Football is, as all managers make sure to say, a results game - and the results have been far from good enough. No head coach with a win rate of 24 per cent should ever expect to find themselves staying in the dugout for long, and it was those results which ultimately led to the fans turning on him.

Injuries, a low budget and a poor squad all made the job more difficult, but nevertheless, he should not have been struggling to get wins against the likes of Carlisle.

Selim Benachour now steps up from the youth team to the first XI on a temporary basis, and the results he has had with his side warrant the appointment.

A fresh pair of eyes will perhaps be less stubborn when it comes to team selection and instead more likely to make the necessary changes, and hopefully he brings some of the youth players with him.

For now though, Latics are left perilously close to the drop, without a manager and with the club in disarray off the pitch. It couldn’t be much worse.