Latics poorer for revolving door

GARY Harkins (left) provides the main attacking threat on current form.

THE main door at Boundary Park could probably do with some fresh oil, given that a dozen players have made first-team appearances this season before leaving for other clubs.

Athletic’s tally of players used in 2013-14 — now 37 — is the joint third-highest in league one.

More could follow if manager Lee Johnson enters the loan market this week.

It is dangerous to read too much into one statistic: Brentford have used 36 players and are involved in a fierce race for promotion.

But in Athletic’s case the foundations of Johnson’s squad have been exposed from the start, and rebuilding from a position of relative weakness has been the run of things since Jose Baxter was sold.

The exact process by which the playmaker went to Sheffield United is unclear, but the team that featured him on the opening day at Stevenage, in a thrilling game Athletic won 4-3, has since had its spine removed.

Also gone are defender James Tarkowski and striker Adam Rooney, who can’t stop scoring for Aberdeen.

Take into account the dark departure Cristian Montano and the loss of substitute Sidney Schmeltz and it’s clear Johnson has lost significant attacking pace wide as well. You can put loan man Mike Petrasso in that bracket, too.

For attack the current team is more prosaic — the notable exception is Gary Harkins — and one-paced.

The loss of Tarkowski, Joseph Mills and Genseric Kusunga has been costly.

Not since before the last meeting with Rotherham have Athletic occupied a place in the top-half.

There are financial reasons for some of the departures and purely footballing reasons behind others.

Is the current squad as good as that of earlier in the season? No it isn’t. Johnson admitted as much after the Preston defeat on Saturday.

Results are similar, but the football is poorer. It may partly be down to conditions and increasingly poor pitches, but the silky front-to-back passing has gone, as has the feeling that Athletic’s dominant performances deserved to produce more points than they had.

The hope remains that Johnson can eke out enough quality to ensure League One safety, before the next big rebuilding job gets going in the summer — by which time the new North Stand will hopefully be taking shape and providing visual hope of better, more profitable and steadier seasons to come.

mattchambers@oldham-chronicle.co.uk