Following plenty of speculation, Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has been confirmed as the new Oldham Athletic manager.
It is Scholes’ first job in management having signed an 18-month contract at Boundary Park and will also see him resign from his role as Director at Salford City due to EFL Rules regarding conflicting interests.
However, he will retain his 10% stake in the National League club alongside Class of ‘92 teammates Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and David Beckham, who became the club’s most recent investor last month.
The EFL have ruled there are no conflict of interests in him retaining shares in Salford, despite the fact the club are currently challenging for promotion to League Two - the same division in which Oldham are currently competing. According to Sky Sports, Oldham will not be allowed to sell to or buy players from Salford.
Scholes joins former England teammate Sol Campbell in taking his first managerial job in the fourth tier of English football, with Campbell currently in charge of strugglers Macclesfield.
Oldham are currently 14th in the League Two table, nine points adrift of the play-offs but have at least one game in hand on nearly all of the sides above them in the division.
Oldham owner Abdallah Lemsagam said: "Paul has won everything there is to win in football.
"He is a man who will bring a lot of footballing knowledge and his hunger to succeed in management will be there for everyone to see.
"It's no secret how much he has wanted this job in the past and how much he loves this club, so I'm very happy to bring him into our family at Oldham Athletic.
"Paul will have my backing 100 per cent and hopefully we can work together to bring success back to this club."
It is a far less glamorous route into management than other players of his stature and generation have recently taken, with Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard earning debut gigs at Rangers and Derby County respectively.
However, Scholes has an attachment to Oldham that has brought him back to the club and still has an outside chance of getting them into the play-offs. Check out some of the best Twitter reactions to his appointment below.
