Blitz in control at Latics

[Jack]

Oldham co-owner Simon Blitz has taken over chairmanship of the club after Barry Chaytow announced his decision to step down.

Chaytow, who has been involved at Boundary Park since 2003 when he helped stabilise the club through a period of uncertainty, has resigned from the post as he is putting together a bid to buy the club.

Blitz co-owns The Latics with fellow business partners Danny Gazal and Simon Corney - with the trio having grown somewhat exasperated of late at failed attempts to push forward plans for a new stadium.

While conceding that Chaytow's bid will be considered, Blitz insists a sale would only be permitted if it was right for the club.

"I would like to thank Barry for all the hard work he has put in since we became owners of the club three years ago," Blitz told the club's official website.

"However Barry has expressed an interest in acquiring the club from us and developing the stadium and land along similar lines to our own plans and because of this it was felt that he should step down from the board so that there was no conflict of interests.

"Since we announced our plans for Boundary Park last February we have been disappointed with the lack of support from certain organisations in the town but our commitment to the club has never waned.

"We can confirm that since the day we took over the club we have had approaches from various interested parties but we can assure fans that if we ever sold the club it would only be to someone who could safeguard the future of Oldham Athletic."

Meanwhile, youngster Neal Trotman has been rewarded for a string of promising displays with a deal until the end of the present campaign.