Cash crisis

Alan Hardy: money tight

ATHLETIC chief executive Alan Hardy says it will be “difficult” to continue meeting the players’ wage bill between now and the end of the season.

The Boundary Park squad are expected to pick up their February pay packets before Wednesday, with cash-flow problems leading to a delay in processing money which should have been in their possession last Friday.

But with gate-receipt income from only six home matches between now and the end of the season — half of which are on a traditional Saturday afternoon — Hardy admitted it would be a struggle to avoid the situation repeating itself.

“We hope we will be able to continue to meet wage demands,” said Hardy, who revealed that manager Paul Dickov informed the players of the situation when it arose last week. “But we know that it is going to be difficult.”

The news of the non-payment of player wages emerged at the Peterborough game on Saturday, with Athletic’s chief executive speaking after the game to explain the situation.

An official club statement was later released. It read: “This is expected to be a short-term problem which has been created by the withdrawal of development investors after Oldham Council failed to receive permission from the Charity Commission for the swap of the trust status on the land adjacent to the Lancaster Club.”

It was also stressed in the official wording that other rumours swilling around the stands at Boundary Park — that the ground and club had been sold — were untrue.

Hardy also said today that he had heard nothing to indicate the club was about to enter administration, a move that chairman Simon Corney has consistently stressed is not on the cards.

The difficult situation off the pitch is currently echoed on it, with the five-goal defeat by Peterborough representing Athletic’s sixth match without a win and fifth without scoring a goal.

But while rookie manager Dickov is in the midst of his most barren period in charge, Hardy emphasised the against-the-odds progress that has been made this term.

“We are confident the manager will drag the team out of the first bad spell we have had this season,” he said.

“On the budget we are operating with, we have over-achieved if anything up to now.

“If you had offered a position of eighth in the table in February to us at the start of the season we would have been delighted.

“This is a young team and we are still handily-placed.”