'Shexit' is a bitter blow for morale

JOHN SHERIDAN

ALL the omens were present in the press room at Millwall four weeks ago.

Rumours had swirled that Bolton wanted to get John Sheridan and the man himself was pressed by a radio reporter to effectively nail his colours to Athletic's mast.

He didn't quite do so.

Perhaps that is the mark of a manager who, after doing a spectacular job in saving the club's League One skin, simply didn't want to engage in the speculation game.

Or maybe it was that he wasn't 100-per-cent, unequivocally sure he would be stopping at Athletic.

The club issued a hands-off statement, super-keen as they were to keep their hugely popular talisman.

But the stories kept coming. Sheridan was linked with Leeds next and then, Notts County. The suspicion is that these stories don't emerge from a vacuum, without encouragement or at least a refusal from some quarter to rule out a change of employment.

The minutiae of how it came to pass that Sheridan is set to drop down a division will no doubt emerge. It seems he is keen to take the chance to link back up with a man he knows very well in Magpies chief executive Jason Turner, who he also worked with at Plymouth and Newport.

Notts County play in League Two, but they operate on a different financial plane to Athletic. Though currently under a transfer embargo, which is expected to end shortly, their wage budget for this season was understood to comfortably exceed that of Athletic's and the club are set to throw the kitchen sink at a promotion tilt next time around.

Athletic's gleaming new North Stand may put on grand £70-a-head dining events, but in its as-yet unfinished state it seems that the impact is not yet being felt in a budget that means the club, relatively speaking in League One, continue to pick up the scraps from under the table.

When confirmed, it will be a bitter pill to swallow for Athletic fans who only 15 months ago saw Lee Johnson also jump ship, to Barnsley. Even more so, due to Sheridan's deep affinity with Athletic ­- something he often mentioned in interviews.

Similarly, the directors will feel hugely deflated. Then again, so did Newport's back in mid-January.

Now there is another divorce on the cards, and a sixth manager hunt in not much over a year. Athletic are the Liz Taylor of League One. But the task of sweeping the supporters off their feet all over again has never seemed bigger.