Oldham Athletic manager Micky Mellon says the club will take its time in securing the right players for the new 2026/27 season. With a head start in less than a year after securing promotion back to the Football League, Mellon intends to use the time wisely to weigh up the best options for building on a successful first season back in the EFL. Asked how soon he hoped or expected to do any transfer business, the Latics manager said: "You can't put a time on that because players are all still under contract, but you will have talks and try to get to a place where you know what the ins and outs situations are, and we're well on with that. We won't be in as much of a rush (compared to last year) and we can have a real considered look at things. And we understand a lot more about what the league needs and the type of player the league needs to try to win games in it. We know the type of player that we want to try to bring in or remain with us at the football club. We're not going into the unknown, so that makes a huge difference. It will be nice to have more calculated, considered look at how we want to do things." Mellon has already made a start on shaping his squad for next season after the club announced which players would be staying and leaving this summer, along with the out-of-contract players who Latics are hoping to keep, which include defenders Manny Monthe and Reagan Ogle, and experienced striker Joe Garner. Captain Tom Conlon, who missed the majority of the season through a cruciate knee ligament injury, has been released at the end of his two-and-a-half-year deal, as has right back Jake Caprice, who has been hampered by hamstring problems over the last 14 months. Ryan Woods and Josh Hawkes have another year left on their current contracts after signing for Latics last summer, but the pair have both been made available for transfer. Next fixture: vs Chesterfield (away, 2027-02-20) (15th in the table).