Former Carlisle United manager Keith Curle has left the most insecure job in football.
The 58-year-old, who was appointed Oldham head coach in March, has left the Latics by mutual consent.
He succeeded Harry Kewell on March 8, initially to the end of last season, and went on to sign a new two-year contract in the summer.
Curle was owner Abdallah Lemsagam’s ninth managerial appointment in three years and since Lee Johnson, the average job expectancy of an Oldham Athletic manager is just under 21.5 games.
Oldham have made a poor start to the season and are only two points better-off than Carlisle and currently lie third bottom with four wins from 18 games.
There have been several fans protests against the Oldham owner, with one this season when fans ran onto the pitch and sat in the centre circle.
But Curle’s efforts to reignite Oldham have been hit by a catalogue of injuries.
Even so they scored a lastn minute winner against play-off placed Port Vale last Saturday and it was a 2-1 defeat last night at another of Curle’s former clubs, Northampton Town, which appears to have been the spur to the announcement.
A club statement reads: “Oldham Athletic can confirm that Keith Curle has left his role as head coach by mutual consent.
“We would like to thank Keith for his efforts during his time at Boundary Park and would also like to wish him well for the future. His assistant, Colin West, has also been relieved of his duties.
“Selim Benachour will step up from the Academy and take over as interim head coach for the time being with no further comment now as the team continues its preparations for the game at the weekend.”
Bristol-born Curle played as a centre-back from 1981 to 2005, notably for Manchester City, where he was also the club captain.
He also played for Bristol Rovers, Torquay United, Bristol City, Reading, Wimbledon, Wolves, Sheffield United and Barnsley, before being appointed player manager at Mansfield. In total he played 708 League games and was capped three times by England.
After three years at Mansfield he later managed Chester, Torquay, Notts County, Carlisle and Northampton.
