Latics name Curle as new boss

Former Northampton, Carlisle and Mansfield boss Keith Curle

Latics have confirmed their appointment of experienced former Mansfield, Torquay, Carlisle and Northampton boss Keith Curle as their new head coach.

Former Manchester City, Wimbledon and England playing star Curle, who is now 57, has penned a deal 'until the end of the season initially'.

Curle will be in charge for tomorrow’s league fixture at Port Vale and Paul Butler, who has been helping out recently, has now returned permanently and will become his assistant.

Curle was sacked by Northampton last month with the Cobblers struggling at the wrong end of League One.

He succeeds Harry Kewell, who was sacked by the Boundary Park outfit last night (Sunday) after just over six months in charge.

Despite scoring 49 goals in 32 League Two fixtures this season, the third-highest of any team in the fourth tier, Latics have so far conceded a league-high 56 goals and are 16th in the table.

Curle is Latics owner Abdallah Lemsagam’s SEVENTH permanent manager since he took over in early 2018, and club legend Andy Ritchie offered his reaction earlier today.

He said: “The owner knows what he wants, but he wants it yesterday.

“That’s like a lot of clubs thesedays – you don’t get a lot of time to even get your ethics across and the way you want to play to your players before you’re under pressure.

“There’s new coaches to come into that as well, the players need to get used to them – that all takes time.

“You’ve got to have that time to bed that knowledge into the players.

“I feel a bit sorry for the players because they’ve had so many different coaches and so many different ideas thrown at them, and now they’ll probably have to change again.”

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