Latics' new first team coach Dean Holden believes the opportunity to return to the club was too good to turn down and has high hopes for his time here.
Holden rejoined the club he left in 2005 last week, joining up with former teammate Lee Johnson who he played with in 2012 for Chesterfield.
The 35-year-old revealed was a long drawn out process but cannot wait to get started with the club and has set his sights on the top.
He said: "The opportunity was too good to turn down. To come to this club, in the position that it is in, and come in as first team coach is such a fantastic opportunity and it is what I've been working towards for the last four or five years with my coaching badges.
"It came a year early in what I thought would be my career path but that is what life is like. It throws things at you and it is how you deal with them so it was too good to turn down.
"It's a chance for me to come in and work at a great football club with people I know well. I've seen performances already this season and I know we have been playing well so it's a chance for me to come in and add to what is already here.
"I said to the lads on the first day; the way the outside world sees them, in terms of lads at Walsall and other players from other clubs that I speak to, Oldham are one of the standout teams this season.
"That is what the expectation is now and you can see that with last week's game. Crawley came to sit behind the ball and we have got to get used to that this season because the lads have got a reputation now for hurting teams."
Asked if it was a hard decision to retire completely from football, Holden replied: "Some would say I hung them up a good while ago!
"I don't think I played enough games as I would have liked in the last couple of seasons but I knew my role at Walsall. I was there as an experienced player around the dressing room and help develop the young players and it was something I enjoyed."
After leaving the club nine years ago, the former defender revealed little had changed about the place and believes there is an air of confidence around the place.
He said: "Some of it hasn't changed and that is what I like about it. What I did notice when I came with Walsall a month or so ago was the optimism around the place.
"There is one keen Oldham fan when I take my son to play local football and he talks about the optimism around the place this year and that is definitely here.
"It reminds me of when I was here under Iain Dowie and we had those sorts of atmospheres around the ground so hopefully we are on the up."
Watch the full interview on Latics Player.