Former Everton and Wigan Athletic man gets first top job after brief stints in charge at Preston North End

Unsworth, who has made no secret of his attempts to find a top job over recent years, has spent the majority of his coaching career so far at Everton spending eight years at Goodison Park charge of their U23s side and also being director of their academy.

He started out his coaching career at PNE after he called time on a long and successful career that started out with the Toffees, went on to play nearly 300 times for Everton across two spells but also spent time with West Ham United, Sheffield United, Wigan and Burnley amongst others – as well as earning one England cap.

Unsworth began as a development coach at North End beforte becoming a first team coach. When Darren Ferguson was sacked, Unsworth was put in caretaker charge of the first team where he lost both games. He was again put in caretaker charge, joint with Graham Alexander, and the pair won two, drew two and lost one of their five games in charge.

Now Unsworth, 48, has signed a three-year-deal as boss of National League Oldham.

“This is the perfect job for me and I’m hugely excited to be joining the club at this time,” he said.

“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.

“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.”