Darren Royle opens up on Wigan Athletic's 'world being turned upside down'

Despite being one of the form teams in the Championship during the second half of the campaign, a 12-point EFL deduction – for being placed in administration by owner Au Yeung Wai Kay – saw Latics drop back into the bottom three for the final reckoning.

Last week’s appeal to an independent panel – which cost in the region of £500,000 – failed to get the penalty overturned, with the full details of the verdict expected to be be revealed next week.

And for executive chairman Royle, who’s kept his counsel since the whole saga broke at the start of last month, it will be one more step on a long and painful journey.

“The whole world’s been turned upside down, a lot of people have lost their jobs and had it worse than me, and it’ll take a while to digest and fully come to terms with it all,” he told the Wigan Post.

“Football being football, these things need to happen very quickly if the club is to move on, and you need to prepare for a number of different scenarios.

“But you do need to get over those personal challenges, because the season will be on us before too long.

“I’m still working there in a capacity as a director to support the administrators, as is Jonathan (Jackson), and I’ll continue to do so to try and get some positive solutions to all of this.

“Time allows you to take stock of stuff, and it’s been very hard not to be able to express my true feelings about what’s happened, but that’s the situation we’re in.

“I know people want me to say stuff – and I want to say things – but you have to have a blue head on your shoulders, and not a red one.

“But hopefully as the facts come out, I think most people will have more understanding of what’s gone on.”