Oldham Athletic have appointed John Sheridan for a sixth spell in charge as the League Two strugglers turn to a proven miracle worker as a final throw of the dice to save them from their latest crisis.
Oldham's ownership problems under the controversial Abdallah Lemsagam have been well-publicised and protests from fans have been commonplace this season with multiple pitch invasions, tennis balls and flares being thrown on the pitch, and a coffin being placed outside Boundary Park.
A gutless 3-0 defeat at Harrogate on Saturday saw Oldham players booed and jeered off the pitch by their own furious away support, leading interim coach Selim Benachour to declare that everyone was against his team. The loss left Latics seven points adrift of safety at the bottom of League Two, facing a second relegation in four years under Lemsagam's reign.
Earlier this month, Lemsagam agreed to sell the club after accepting that his departure is in Oldham's best interests. Now, in one final, desperate attempt to ensure he sells a Football League club rather than a non-league one, he has turned to Latics legend Sheridan to perform another one of his 'great escapes', after the former Republic of Ireland international kept them up against the odds in League One in 2016/17 and 2017/18.
After Sheridan's return was confirmed on Saturday night, many fans vowed to suspend their boycotts against Lemsagam and return to Boundary Park, and the supporter-base now see a glimmer of hope in their survival battle. However, in turning to Sheridan - reportedly working for free - it is one final admission from Lemsagam that his project at Oldham has emphatically failed.
Since Lemsagam took over Oldham in January 2018, there have been 11 changes of manager, averaging just 18 games each, and multiple stories of interference from the owner and his Sporting Director brother Mohamed in team selection. Sheridan doesn't fit the Lemsagam profile for a head coach - he is outspoken, to the point, and will work his way and his way only.
In fact, when Lemsagam first became involved with Latics at the start of the 2017/18 season before completing his purchase in January, Sheridan was manager and once named just three substitutes for one toxic game at Blackpool in protest at the quality of players being brought in without his knowledge. He left soon after, unable to build a squad in his image under the incoming Lemsagam regime, with results suffering as a result.
Four-and-a-half years later, he's back and the Lemsagam project has failed. Sheridan won't stand for big names or interference in his job, and he is said to have offered his services to the club for free in order to try and keep them up. He's on the side of the fans.
Lemsagam has finally made a popular appointment, but he knows he can't win by bringing Sheridan back. The head coaches appointed by the Lemsagams - including Paul Scholes and Harry Kewell - have often been scapegoats for poor results rather than Mohamed Lemsagam's recruitment or the endless reports of off-field problems. Fans adore Sheridan, and even if they are relegated they will not hold it against him.
Now, relegation will firmly be the fault of the Lemsagams, and they will have nobody else to blame. They wouldn't get any credit for staying up, either, as Sheridan would rightfully take that acclaim - already it has been suggested survival would be his greatest achievement at Boundary Park, and he would have to be considered as one of the club's greatest-ever managers.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, though, and Lemsagam knows he lost the fanbase a while ago. Indeed, he tried to ban three supporters for 'promoting dislike' of him earlier this month, before rescinding the decision under intense pressure. Now, he knows that Sheridan is probably the only person in the world capable of keeping Oldham up, and that is worth swallowing his pride for.
Sheridan knows the club inside out having played almost 150 times for them and managed 220 games over five previous spells as caretaker or permanent manager. He was the last manager to lead them to a play-off campaign in 2006/07, and incredibly was the last manager to lead them to a top half finish in any league back in 2008/09.
Sheridan was brought back in January 2016 and then a year later after leaving for Notts County in between, tasked both times with keeping the club in League One when relegation looked inevitable. He worked wonders both times, enhancing his legend status among fans and sparking the 'Shezzurection' nickname that resurfaced on Saturday night.
In a recent Undr The Cosh podcast, 'Shez' admitted he wasn't actively looking to return to management, and accepted that his no-nonsense style was probably outdated in modern management. His last few jobs at the likes of Wigan and Swindon have ended badly, and Oldham is probably the only EFL job he could realistically hope for.
It's a match that works, however, and it's a measure of his feeling for Oldham that he's willing to come back to try and save them from what would be a catastrophic relegation.
Ultimately, Oldham need Sheridan more than he needs them, and he's the only person with a track record of keeping sides up, as well as being able to instantly get the fans onside. The Harrogate performance showed no desire or determination, with fans and players at odds with each other. At least now there will be a united effort to stay up against all odds, and if Oldham do go down they will do so with a bit of fight.
Lemsagam knows that his time is up, and Sheridan's return is the final admission. But if Shez can lead Latics to his greatest miracle job of them all, maybe Lemsagam can at least leave the club with some semblance of optimism for the future without him.
Sheridan's first game back in charge is against local rivals Rochdale on Saturday, before a must-win trip to Scunthorpe, one point above them in the relegation zone.
