JOHN Sheridan has offered to come back to Oldham Athletic to help boost their relegation fight, The Oldham Times understands.

The Latics legend is even believed to have contacted the Lemsagam brothers saying he would be prepared to return to the dugout for FREE.

Such is his dismay at the plight the club finds itself, Sheridan is understood to have informed owner Abdallah Lemsagam that he would waiver a wage to help save Latics, who sit bottom of League Two, four points adrift of safety, with less than a half of the season to go.

Sheridan has pulled off survival missions before with Latics, who have been operating without a permanent head coach since parting company with Keith Curle two months ago.

Selim Benachour was asked to step up from his role in the Academy to take temporary charge of the first team, with Academy colleague Conor Marlin the interim assistant.

They have yet to win a league game, leaving Latics facing the ignominy of becoming the first former Premier League club to suffered relegation from the Football League.

And it is that what is believed to have prompted Sheridan to reach out to the club’s hierarchy in a bid to help rescue the club he served as both player and manager.

However, it is understand that Sheridan has yet to receive a response to his offer.

The former Republic of Ireland international, who ended his playing career at Boundary Park in 2004, has previously managed the club five times, twice as caretaker, albeit on the first occasion for just one game.

He was first appointed as permanent Latics boss in une 2006. He took charge of 151 games, had a win percentage of 40.40 and guided Latics to the League One play-offs in the 2006/07 season.

Sheridan then went onto manage Chesterfield, where he won the League Two title, and had spells in charge of Plymouth Argyle and Newport County before returning to Boundary Park to pull off what became known as the “Shezurrection” in 2016.

Oldham were rock bottom of League One when he was appointed in January, but they went on to embark on a seven-game unbeaten run to give them momentum and a run of three wins on the spin after a slight wobble in March fired Latics out of the bottom four for the first time since November.

Back-to-back wins against Southend and Crewe in April guaranteed safety.

Sheridan left for Notts County that summer, returning to Latics in January 2017, to complete the ‘Shezurrection’ sequel, surviving with two League One games to spare.

He has since managed Fleetwood, Carlisle, Chesterfield, Wigan and most recently Swindon Town.

His former Latics team-mate David Eyres, who had a spell as co-caretaker with Sheridan at Boundary Park, feels his return would lift the entire club.

“He was a great player and a great manager and he loves the club,” said Eyres.

Whether a hat-trick is on the cards remains to be seen.

The Oldham Times has contacted the club for a comment.

Latics have previously turned down the offer of support from the EFL after finding themselves under a double transfer embargo.

It was suggested that experienced and well respected former Wigan chief executive Jonathan Jackson stepped in to offer support at the crisis club, in what is thought to be an unprecedented move by the organisation.

However, this was a paid for role and the proposal was rejected because of the cost involved.