Former Everton player and coach David Unsworth has been appointed in his first senior managerial role at Oldham Athletic. The 48-year-old has signed a three-year deal with the Latics and replaces John Sheridan, who ended his sixth spell in charge of the National League side on Saturday with a 3-2 win over Eastleigh.
Unsworth, who departed his dual role as Everton’s Academy Director and Under-23s manager in April to pursue his managerial ambitions, will bring two former Blues with him in the shape of John Ebbrell and Francis Jeffers as assistant manager and first team coach respectively. Only last week it was revealed that Ebbrell was moving to a new role of Player Development Senior Coach at Everton with director of football Kevin Thelwell appointing the FAW’s Carl Darlington as new Head of Academy Coaching.
Unsworth, who made 350 appearances for Everton over two spells as a player, scoring 40 goals, steered the club’s second string to a brace of Premier League 2 titles as manager. He had two spells as caretaker manager of the first team – a single game with Joe Royle (who he joins at Boundary Park with the former Blues boss now a director) on the final day of the 2015/16 season and eight matches during 2017/18 – but turned down the chance to take charge of Oxford United in February 2018.
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He said: “This is the perfect job for me and I’m hugely excited to be joining the club at this time. I’ve had opportunities to become a first-team manager at a number of clubs over the past three of four years but they haven’t felt quite right.
“This is the right club, the right fit, with the right owners and board of directors. The fanbase has also been a very important factor in my decision to join. I’ve seen the support they have given the team this season and I’m sure they’ll continue to get right behind the team.
“I genuinely think this club is a sleeping giant, one that can climb up not just one league, but two or three, in a short space of time. I’m very pleased to be here and I can’t wait to meet the players and get started in the job.”
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